I am one of life’s natural recyclers. I simply hate to throw anything out. Books are a case in point, where a volume that I’ve finished with has to be literally falling apart before I will drop it in the recycling bin rather than add to the stack destined for the charity shop.

In another example of this, I spent a large part of the morning completing a home-made mesh-covered cloche for use on my allotment, where the wildlife take every opportunity to eat the crops you spend so much time nurturing. It’s wooden frame has been put together from timber that once made up part of my old shed. In truth, I’ve spent far too long on it, perfectionist that I tend to be, but at least I can feel pleased to have put that old timber to good use and avoided chucking it on the scrap heap.

My stories also attract the attention of my recycling instincts and this is very definitely a good thing. You see, it can be all too easy to publish a new story in a single format, tell yourself that’s a job well-done, then move on to the next one.

But there are always many different ways in which a story can be shared with the world. It can be in hard-copy, ebook or audio and it can be stand-alone, in a single author collection or part of a multi-author anthology. You might get lucky and see it appear in a magazine or shared on a website. If it’s short enough, you could even make a poster of it (and there’s something I haven’t done yet).

So many options to consider it can sometimes feel overwhelming. But they all bring with them the possibility of new readers. So, this is one instance where those deep-routed tendencies to recycle most definitely come in handy.

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images on Pixabay.