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Max your Mileage: Getting More than One Story Out of One Idea
by Kelly James-Enger

Spin off related stories from your initial idea and youll nail more assignments and make more money in the process. Its easy once you know how.

I call these kinds of stories "reslants." Reslants are different than reprints. A reprint is a piece thats already been published. A reslant is an entirely different piece with a new angle, new approach, and possibly new sources as well.

One Idea, Many Angles

To come up with reslants, take a look at your initial story idea and think about other angles and other possible markets for it. If youre pitching a nutrition piece about the benefits of eating more fruits and vegetables to a general interest magazine, for example, you could take a weight loss angle for a fitness magazine and pitch a piece on ways to get your kids to eat more produce for a parenting magazine. In the meantime, you could query a womans magazine about a piece on make your dinners healthier by including more vegetables and a regional magazine about types of fruits and vegetables grown in the area.

Reap your Research

Heres an example. Several years ago, I wrote a piece about the benefits of using a heart rate monitor during exercise for a womens fitness magazine, focusing on weight loss. Last year, I did another story on heart rate monitors for Experience Life, a custom publication thats sent to members of Lifetime Fitness clubs, covering the benefits of using them regardless of your individual fitness goals. A few months ago, I wrote about heart rate monitors again, but this time for a mens fitness magazine. This time I focused on how they can help body-builders squeeze the most benefits out of their cardio sessions. Although I used several different experts for these stories and used fresh quotes each time, the second and third stories took little time to write because I already had done the background research for the first article.

Look for New Angles

Even if you cant come up with a slew of different angles at the outset, watch for possible ideas during the research processyou may find unexpected story ideas popping up. When I was researching a story on the glycemic index ("GI") which rates carbohydrate foods on how dramatically they affect blood sugar, I discovered a number of studies on the GI and exercise performance. That idea became a second article for another magazine.

The Skys the Limit

The number of ideas you can spin out of one basic concept is an unlimited as your imagination. The key is to think creatively when pitching and researching stories. To query an idea, you come up with a specific angle on the idea. Challenge yourself to come up with multiple angles for every story you writethen look for appropriate markets and start querying!

Even after the story is completed, watch for other ways to reuse your research. Maybe a new studys been published that makes your topic timely again, or youve discovered a new angle for a different market. Reslanting lets you reap the information you already have on your computers hard drive, and that means more money in less time in the long run.

Want to make more money as a writer? Then specialize. Kelly James-Enger’s new book, Ready, Aim, Specialize! Create your own Writing Specialty and Make More Money describes the hottest specialties and how to crack them, as well as how to create a specialty of your own. Read more about it at www.becomebodywise.com/books