The Lard Factor

I find a good portion of my freelance positions on Craigslist. Usually, individuals in need of affordable writing projects will advertise here. Sometimes companies will do the same, although this is less common. Craigslist is also a breeding ground for people looking to exploit freelance writers with ridiculously low paying jobs. Because these jobs are so hard to come by, there is fierce competition even for the worst of these jobs.

Tonight, while browsing Craigslist I found a company that had posted the following: "Do you shun the idea of 'filler' and 'fluff' in your writing?". The line struck a chord with me. As a writer, I have spent most of my writing life trying to find the absolute easiest way to say something. This oftentimes means distilling a sentence or a paragraph down to the bare essentials, omitting needless words and shortening sentences down from long snakes of language down to an inch worm of meaning.

I had a professor in college who had devised a strategy for doing just this. He called it "the lard factor."

The lard factor works like this: you count how many words are in your original sentence. Then you condense the same meaning down into as few words as possible. Next, you determine what percentage of words were cut: this is your lard factor.

For example, take the following lines: "It was a dark, steamy, night. I could see the steam coming off of my own sweating body."

Then, compare it to the this: "In the dark, steam poured off of my sweating body."

The first line consists of 18 words, while the second is 10 words. 8 words were omitted while the meaning was preserved. This equates to a 44.4% lard factor within the first couple sentences.

It's baffling to me, after having practiced this art for so long, how easy it is to say what you want to in as few words as possible. With a little ingenuity, anyone can do this.

And, ironically, my longest post yet is about brevity. Go figure.

Busy Week

What a tumultuous week! I have done little but write this week. My final draft of the short selling book is due next week, I have had wonderful ideas for Runner (my novel), and I have picked up two new web content jobs.

It's actually been great. I have been able to stay home with Ethan everyday and enjoy his company. And when he cries, I either pick him up and type one-handed, or I take a break if I need one.

I've kept my promise to myself too. I have been doing a lot of pleasure reading. I'm currently working on Enchantment, by Orson Scott Card. Not his best work, but still a good read.

In addition to my writing, I've been brainstorming ideas for my wife's new business. I have been starting seedlings of organic plants to go along with her green-themed concepts. I've also been planting other non-organic plants for my own enjoyment. We are going to have a million tomato plants in a few months, it seems.

I still need ideas for the book giveaway contest! Email me with suggestions.

Interview

Today, my editor forwarded me an email sent by another Atlantic author. He runs a blog (dadofdivas.blogspot.com), for fathers who are in the public eye. Apparently, now that I am a published author, I am in the limelight. Chris plans on publishing my interview June 3. He has well over a hundred followers to his blog, I am pretty excited that me and my writing will get this type of public exposure. I hope that you all check out Chris's June 3rd post and let me know what you think.

Out of the Loop

I have spent so much time writing lately that I have fallen way behind on my reading. My family would find this quite ironic since I walk or ride my bike to the library nearly every day. This has been mostly for research materials for different projects I have begun and then discarded. Basically, I have too many irons in the fire.

So I am taking a few days off from writing for others. I will continue writing for myself, however. This includes my novel (which is about 1/3 of the way completed) and my blog. I will also be reading as much as I can. I'm currently reading an Orson Scott Card book I have never seen before (well, at least until today). A War of Gifts is a novella based on the Ender storyline. For those of you who don't know Card, he is a phenomenal writer. Ender's Game is one of my all-time favorite books; I would go as far as to say it is the best all around science fiction piece ever written.

What a lot of Card's fans don't know is that he has a plethora of books outside the Ender mythos. Magic Street, a fantasy, is great, as are Lost Boys, Empire, and Treasure Box. Card also wrote the first few issues of Ultimate Iron Man for Marvel Comics.

I will be making parts of my novel available for sneak peeks over the next few months as I get closer to finishing it. It's tentatively entitled Runner; and it is not about the type of running that you would think. That's all I will say for now.

Oh! One more thing! I will send a free copy of my annuities book to a lucky reader as soon as I think of a good contest idea. Email me with suggestions: m_g_young@yahoo.com !

A shameless plug

As some of you might know, I have been the presiding outdoor recreation writer for Examiner.com for the past year. Although I haven't always been timely with my articles, I have greatly enjoyed this role. I have been able to write about such varied topics as local, state, and national parks, the Tour de France, bird watching, and teaching children about conservation. My site can be found here. I've also had the honor of interviewing my friend and great triathlete, Travis Earley.

The great thing about this writing opportunity is that I have been able to point out opportunities that people might not necessarily think to do on their own. There are truly many great things to do in the Rochester area, you just have to know where to look. And this is part of my job. I get to connect with people who are looking for outdoor fun and point them in the right direction.

I hope you enjoy this site. I promise I will be better about posting on it!

I wanted to create a multi-purpose blog. A spot where I could write down my thoughts, but also communicate with my readers on a more personal level. Before I get started, I need to thank my lovely wife for peer pressuring me into keeping a blog and for making it look a lot less bland than other blogs I have kept.

My first finance book is coming out very soon. As a licensed Life, Accident, and Health insurance agent in New York, I tackle the subject of annuities. Titled The Complete Guide to Investing in Annuities: How to Earn High Rates of Return-- Safely, this is my first book. Annuities were the hardest thing for me to grasp when I was training to be an agent; they are definitely the most complex form of insurance that I sold. However, annuities do not necessarily need to be a mystery. There are two main types of annuities that you need to be aware of: fixed and variable. The fixed category covers any annuity that has a built in rate of return; variable annuities fluctuate based on the performance of a larger index. Although there are many subtypes of annuities, these two terms will help you navigate your way around making a purchase. Do you want the guarantee of a minimum rate of return? or do you want something that is going to keep up with the rate of inflation, even if this means that it will not increase in value each year? These larger questions are vital in selecting the right annuity for you. This book can be purchased here.

I have also just finished work on a second book for the financial world. The Complete Guide to Selling Stocks Short: Everything You Need to Know Explained Simply covers a very different type of financial product. Selling stocks short is considered a high-risk type of trading. This can be very promising as far as investments go though, as long as you know what you are doing. Basically, the premise of this book is to show people how to benefit from falling stock prices. Rather than buying a share of stock and holding it indefinitely waiting for prices to rise, selling short involves selling the stock first and hoping that prices drop. When you finally buy back the shares originally sold, hopefully you will be buying them at a discount. This book can be ordered here.

I plan on updating this blog at least once per week. As the release dates of these books gets closer, I will be having a contest to win a free copy of one of each of these books-- so check back in often!