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chapter four
Writing as
recycling
In this chapter we will look at ways in which you can recycle texts in cre-
ative writing. By recycling texts I mean enriching your own writing by
incorporating texts by other people. Relevant here is the concept of
intertextuality. This is a term coined by Julia Kristeva, Roland Barthes and
others to highlight the way that no text is ever completely new, original or
independent: writers are always, to some degree, reinventing what has
already been written (Wolfreys 2004, pp. 119–21). Writing is rather like
recycling paper, you give the texts you have read another life through the
way you reshape them. Or to put it another way, when we write we are
constantly scavenging from what we have read in the past, either directly
or obliquely. We pilfer (though in the most law-abiding way), not only
from literary texts, but non-literary ones such as newspaper articles and a
wide range of visual and oral media such as TV or radio.
Recycling texts is a way of milking this relationship between the text
that you are creating and those that other people have written. It’s also a
way of building ideas without having to depend only on your own
thoughts. Just as everything that goes on around you—everything you
observe or imagine—might be material for your writing, so everything
that you have read is potentially grist for your mill, and can be reinvented
in your own work.
Many writers have recycled texts in this way, and it can be a resource for
you. Of course I’m not suggesting that you stop generating your own texts,
and exclusively use those written by other authors. Rather it’s another
technique to add to your bag of tools to use along with others. It can also
be a very effective way of triggering writing: for example, you can sift