I’ve always been afraid of re-slanting articles. There. I’ve said it. While other writers were happily re-working old pieces and making a fortune or at least a living from it-- if my trusty Writer’s Digest magazine was to be believed-- I crafted each piece from scratch, starting with the dreaded blank page. While my productivity wasn’t anything stunning, it felt safer. I didn’t really know how to get started, anyway.

Over the past few months, I have happily been raiding my “sent” folder in Gmail, re-slanting and submitting old ideas to new magazines. The jury is still out on whether these pieces will be accepted, but statistically I am ahead of the game: I have gone from submitting one piece per week to submitting two to three per day. And that feels pretty spectacular.

Most writers realize that re-slanting an article is a great way to make more money from writing. If you have written one article about a topic, pitching additional pieces on similar topics will net more value. You have already done much of the legwork and research for your first article, so re-slanting often takes far less than beginning an article anew-- and you get you use all that material that ended up not fitting into the article you wrote. If it took you ten hours to research and write the article the first time around, it can take you only a third of that time to create a fresh piece and resubmit it. Since you are still submitting a new piece, though, you are paid at your usual rate.

Re-working your previously written material pays. It’s time to look at your research notes and clips folder and find ways to restructure that material into a slew of new sales. I know it can seem scary. What kept me from re-using old ideas for so long was the fact that I had no idea where to start. I had already written the articles after all-- what more was there to say? As it turns out: plenty. If you want to re-work your old pieces but are unsure how to proceed, try these simple techniques for getting fresh stories from your previously written material:

1) Re-slant the style. Is one of your older pieces a bullet-point article? Try switching it to a feature piece. Did you write a longer article? Try reworking some ideas into a short filler. Or restructure that filler you wrote into a quiz.

2) Re-slant the market. One of the simplest ways to get a fresh lease on an older idea is to ask “who else could use this idea?” If you wrote an article about low-budget gardening techniques for a gardening magazine, for example, consider other markets that may be interested in a similar idea. For example, a magazine aimed at seniors might welcome a piece entitled “Gardening That’s Easy On Your Knees-- And Your Wallet.” A parenting magazine might also welcome a piece about low-cost gardening projects for kids.  A trade magazine for landscaping professionals might appreciate low-cost solutions that can be pitched to budget-conscious customers. The possibilities are endless. You can get dozens of new articles just by changing your market.

3) Re-slant the focus. When you were writing your original article, you had to choose one focus. You may have even considered other ways you could approach the same piece. Well, there is no reason not to use all those other possible approaches in completely new articles. If you have written a piece about yoga as a great form of exercise, for example, you could easily write a second article about yoga as a religious exercise and a third article about the emotional benefits of yoga. Changing the focus creates fresh material, but still lets you build on the knowledge you have gained by writing your original piece.

4) Use the article as a jump-off piece. Theoretically, you could re-slant your work indefinitely. In reality, there is a point at which you will crave new material. After you have written five articles about snowboarding, for example, you may find yourself no longer as interested in the subject. You can still make use of your knowledge without revisiting the exact same topic. You can gently start expanding beyond your subject. For example, you might want to start writing about top winter sports in your area-- you already have the material about snowboarding and you only need to research a few other sports to pull the piece together.

There’s no point in beginning with a completely blank page each time you write. If you have already invested the time and energy into an article, you can revisit that research and idea in new pieces. Now I’m off to figure out how to re-work this piece for a senior magazine and a trade.

A. Antonow is a writer living in Canada. In addition to writing copy for business clients, she happily creates nonfiction and fiction.

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