Whom do you write like?

jjochwat · Post by **jjochwat** » July 14th, 2010, 3:02 pm

I have been playing with I Write Like, a "statistical analysis tool, which analyzes your word choice and writing style and compares them to those of the famous writers." http://iwl.me/

According to the tool, the first page of my WIP is like Margaret Atwood (but a separate short story is more like James Joyce).

Whom do you write like?

Post by **Nathan Bransford** » July 14th, 2010, 9:51 pm

I fed the first chapter of JACOB WONDERBAR into this and it said I write like James Joyce.

DON'T TELL PENGUIN!

No but seriously ten year olds love James Joyce.

cheekychook · Post by **cheekychook** » July 14th, 2010, 10:08 pm

I just pasted in one of my posts from this forum and it told me I write like William Shakespeare.

Methinks this method of analysis may perhaps be flawed...

Or maybe some day men in drag will perform my WIP on stage. No idea.

EvelynEhrlich · Post by **EvelynEhrlich** » July 14th, 2010, 10:35 pm

This is fun! My WIP has two POV characters: Leo, a 19th century prince, and Helene, a 21st girl (both are teens).

I plugged in Leo's first chapter, and IWL said I write like Dan Brown.

Then I plugged in Helene's first chapter, and I got Stephenie Meyer.

I know a lot of you don't think Dan Brown and Stephenie Meyer are good writers, but they're bestsellers, so I've got that going for me, right? :)

Margo · Post by **Margo** » July 14th, 2010, 10:40 pm

I also got James Joyce, which I so doubt.

On a serious note, in the past my work has been compared to Mary Renault and Jo Walton.

cheekychook · Post by **cheekychook** » July 14th, 2010, 11:52 pm

Curiosity won out and I pasted in a copy of my WIP's first page. Apparently that reads like Stephen King.

So, I write fiction like Stephen King but my message board posts resemble Shakespeare. Makes me wonder who I email like....

HillaryJ · Post by **HillaryJ** » July 15th, 2010, 12:49 am

I got David Foster Wallace, and now I have to go dustily through my bookshelves to recall his writing style.

And Nathan, my two year old just started Ulysses, and he loves it. So, you're totally safe.

polymath · Post by **polymath** » July 15th, 2010, 12:54 am

I dropped in some Joyce and it came out Joyce. I dropped in some Hemingway from The Old Man and the Sea and it came out Jack London, from "Hills Like White Elephants" and it came out Raymond Chandler. At least London and Chandler and Hemingway are from the same literary epoch though they wrote in different genres. London adventure, Chandler thriller, Hemingway literary.

Some of my writing came out Joyce, and some King, and some London. My poetry Joyce, my fiction Joyce, KIng, and London, my nonfiction David Foster Wallace, a literary fiction and nonfiction writer, and professor, best known for the novel Infinite Jest, 1996, a science fiction social dystopia satire in hysterical realism/Postmodern style.

HillaryJ · Post by **HillaryJ** » July 15th, 2010, 1:08 am

polymath wrote: I dropped in some Hemingway from The Old Man and the Sea and it came out Jack London, from "Hills Like White Elephants" and it came out Raymond Chandler.

That is quite amusing.

Quill · Post by **Quill** » July 15th, 2010, 1:14 am

Six excerpts from six chapters of my WIP yielded three Stephen Kings, and one each Margaret Atwood, David Foster Wallace, and Dan Brown.

Basically just a fun game. Wonder how many authors/styles they have in their bank.

HillaryJ · Post by **HillaryJ** » July 15th, 2010, 1:24 am

Oh, I just got an Anne Rice for a short Sci Fi story. This is addictive, jjochwat.

cheekychook · Post by **cheekychook** » July 15th, 2010, 1:26 am

I just dropped in the first few pages of Judy Blume's Wifey and it came up as J.K. Rowling. Now I have a case of the giggles that's causing the cat to scowl at me.

polymath · Post by **polymath** » July 15th, 2010, 1:28 am

It's a JavaScript application hosted at google analytics so it can't be too 'tolerably many authors to compare to and probably only basic syntax and diction comparisons similar to basic grammar checking style checker apps.

HillaryJ · Post by **HillaryJ** » July 15th, 2010, 1:33 am

polymath,
So you're saying that it probably can't tell us who this "Shakespeare" fellow really was?

polymath · Post by **polymath** » July 15th, 2010, 1:59 am

HillaryJ wrote:polymath,
So you're saying that it probably can't tell us who this "Shakespeare" fellow really was?

Yeah, nor explain old Bill's satire.

Nathan Bransford - The Forums

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