The Internet puts so much information at every writer’s fingertips that they can always be sure they’ll be able to track down whatever they are looking for. The only problem is that along the way, they find a lot of information that they are not looking for!
Make Ever Minute Count
It is all too easy to become sidetracked from the main purpose and to start to waste research time by reading pages which are interesting, but not relevant to the project in hand. That time need not be wasted if it has been invested in a possible future project.
Make every minute of time spent researching count by always being on the lookout for a subject with potential. If something catches your interest, make sure that you have a place where you can quickly bookmark the page and make a note of your ideas.
Create Ideas Folders
Having an “Ideas Folder” in your browsers bookmarks, with web pages to kick off research will always stand you in good stead. It’s also useful to tie this in with an “Ideas Folder” where you can quickly create a word-processing document and jot down a few notes.
Don’t spend a lot of time writing too much about the potential idea. Just take quick notes along with any useful URLs. You only need the minimum required to set you off in the right direction when you follow through with more research later.
Make Every Idea Count
The other way of making your time go further is to see the potential for getting several articles out of one idea. When you do research into your next article try to be aware of all the possible markets for articles.
For example, if you are doing research into an article about working from home, which involves
- How to keep accounts
- Marketing and promotion
- What you need to create a home office
The same basic information can be used to write articles for several different markets:
- An article about how to combine working from home with bringing up small children for a parenting magazine.
- An article suggesting all the different types of work which women might be able to do from home for a women’s magazine.
- An article for a financial or business magazine about how people can adjust to being self-employed from having been salaried (with so many people being made redundant in the current economic climate).
- An article for a computer magazine about how the internet makes it easier to work from home.
Always look at the material you have through the eyes of all the different markets that exist. And even if you don’t write all the articles, keep notes on them and keep them in reserve in your “Ideas Folder”.
Get The Most Out Of Your Previous Work
Always go through old articles and see if you can give them a new spin or angle.
- It may be possible to add to them, expanding them for another market.
- It may be that there have been new developments which mean that you can update and re-write the material in the article.
- It may be that an article mentions some things in passing and that these elements can be developed to become two or more new articles in their own right.
Always try to see the potential for development in all your old articles and try to get the most out of everything you write.
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Janice Hally - Janice Hally has written more than 300 broadcast hours of prime-time TV drama in the UK, as well as fiction and non-fiction books.
