I Write Like

[David]

There's an intriguing little site that tells you which famous author your writing most resembles. It doesn't have to be fiction - you can use blog entries or whatever - but it analyses the style of your writing and matches it with the author closest to that style. Apparently...

 

<!-- Begin I Write Like Badge -->

<div style="overflow:auto;border:2px solid #ddd;font:20px/1.2 Arial,sans-serif;width:380px;padding:5px; background:#F7F7F7; color:#555"><img src="http://s.iwl.me/w.png" style="float:right" width="120"><div style="padding:20px; border-bottom:1px solid #eee; text-shadow:#fff 0 1px"> I write like<br><a href="http://iwl.me/w/69fb153c'>http://iwl.me/w/69fb153c" style="font-size:30px;color:#698B22;text-decoration:none">George Orwell</a></div><p style="font-size:11px; text-align:center; color:#888"><em>I Write Like</em> by Mémoires, <a href="http://www.codingrobots.com/memoires/" style="color:#888">Mac journal software</a>. <a href="http://iwl.me" style="color:#333; background:#FFFFE0"><b>Analyze your writing!</b></a></p></div>

<!-- End I Write Like Badge -->

 

...which comes as a bit of a surprise. Of course, quite how much care this assessment program takes is anyone's guess and essentially it's like saying my scrawled doodlings are 'like' Picasso in that this is the artist that's closest to what I've done. In the same way as our planet being 'close' to Alpha Centauri. Nevertheless, if you enjoy writing it's a bit of fun and also gives you something else to procrastinate with before facing that blank page.

[megustaleer]

That’s fun!

I tried three separate pieces from BGO,.

My review of This Thing of Darkness (“like Arthur Conan Doyle”)

One of my posts from the Kevin thread (“like Stephanie Meyer”)

and my original piece “The Gift” from Writers’ Circle (like P.G.Wodehouse )

 

I then put all three together, and the overall result was ”like Arthur Conan Doyle”.

 

Now whether that was because This Thing Of Darkness was the largest extract, or the last to to be copied into the box I don’t know, but I could waste a lot of this morning experimenting!

 

(Then again, I‘ve always liked ACD‘s stories, so might just stick at that)

[Keenomanjaro]

Almost everything I tried came out as David Foster Wallace.

 

I can't say I'm familiar with his work, but Wikipedia offered the following bit of insight:

 

"Wallace's novels often combine various writing modes or voices, and incorporate jargon and vocabulary (sometimes invented) from a wide variety of fields. His writing featured self-generated abbreviations and acronyms, long multi-clause sentences, and a notable use of explanatory footnotes and endnotes—often nearly as expansive as the text proper."

 

I think I'd be flattering myself to think that I write in such a way.

[Squirls]

Mine came up with H P Lovecraft

 

I'd never heard of him so I also checked him out on Wikipedia. The piece of writing I used was from an assignment essay I wrote last week. Apparently he wrote horror novels, so if that's any indication of horrific the essay is, I'm stuffed

 

 

I also tried it with post number 11 from the "How is Literary Fiction Defined" thread and it came up with James Joyce (I wish)

[Tay]

Hmm I liked this. I tried four different pieces.

 

1 - a paragraph from Turgenev and it came up with Tolstoy so not bad.

 

2 - a paragraph of a review I submitted to BGO about Turgenev and that told me I was like H.P. Lovecraft

 

3 - a 'pome what I wrote!!' and that time I was Nabokov - so getting better.

 

4 - a paragraph from an old short story I wrote and now I'm like Cory Doctorow who according to the net was/is a Canadian journalist and Sci Fi writer - my story was about a bus journey so not much sci fi there!

 

Good fun though.

[lunababymoonchild]

Mine was H P Lovecraft. Can't remember what I posted, though!

[Tay]

Mine came up with H P Lovecraft

 

Mine was H P Lovecraft.

 

and that told me I was like H.P. Lovecraft

 

Who would have thought we'd all be trying to write like a horror writer from the early part of the twentieth century. Oh well Stephen King had better look out, competition is on the way!

[chuntzy]

Guess what? I write like Vladimir Nabokov. or perhaps

[lucyb]

Erm...who is David Foster Wallace?

[jfp]

Mmm, so I write like David Foster Wallace too...

 

In answer to your question, lucyb, he unfortunately isn't any more... He took his own life in 2008.

 

See here.

 

EDIT: if you enter "I'm not", repeated a hundred times, it decides you write like Ernest Hemingway...

[Hazel]

I chose my review of Rich and Mad and it came out that I write like Stephen King.

 

Then my review of HoneyDew and I was H P Lovecraft.

[lucyb]

EDIT: if you enter "I'm not", repeated a hundred times, it decides you write like Ernest Hemingway...

 

you are a scary scary man...