Who do you resemble?

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Coco82

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Who would you say your writing resembles in some way? I of course know everyone's stlye is unique, but which author do you resemble maybe in character structure (ie how many characters you have) or how you structure your novel?
 

Kerosene

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I've been told, and rather agree, that my writing style is a lot like Frank Herbert's.

My pacing and characterization is close to Brent Weeks.
After that, I don't know any more similarities.
 

DeleyanLee

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I've been told that my writing resembles Katherine Kurtz (political), Anne McCaffrey (characters) and Larry Niven (not sure why), but I've never seen any of those resemblances. While I was flattered by the comparisons, I have doubts since I've never read two of them and wasn't fond of the one I did read. Go figure.
 

Roxxsmom

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No one's ever told me who I resemble. Some of my favorite writers are Robin Hobbs, Lynn Flewelling, Lois McMaster Bujold, CJ Cherryh, Anne McCaffrey, Mercedes Lackey and Glenda Larke, and I think they've influenced some things re my world building and characterization and portrayals of pov. But I can't say whether I resemble any of them in any meaningful way style wise.

The only comparison any reader has made was to Terry Brooks, and that was re one particular scene where my character was working her magic. I went "Gaaaahhh!" to that, because I could never get into Terry Brooks for some reason.
 

davidh219

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Haven't had enough people read my writing yet for this to even have a chance to happen :Shrug:

However, I have many times used a website called I Write Like: http://iwl.me/

Not sure how it works, or how accurate it is (not very I'm guessing), but the results can be pretty funny :D

I've gotten probably ten different authors, depending on which of my stories I try. The one that crops up most often is, I think, Kurt Vonnegut, which is funny because I have yet to read anything by him (blasphemy, I know). I've gotten everything from Jack London, to Kipling, to Salinger. I get a LOT of old and dead writers, actually, which makes sense because I love stuff from the 19th/early 20th century. I think the most recent writer I've ever gotten was Chuck Palahniuk, who I've also never read.
 

LadyV

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I haven't the slightest idea if I resemble any authors, as I'm still figuring out my voice. Though I was told by a couple of betas that I have masculine writing style, whatever that might mean.
 

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People have compared my writing to Brian Aldiss and Margaret Atwood, but I'm not convinced.
 

rwm4768

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I'm not sure. I take inspiration from a lot of writers. Whenever I read, I catalog what I like and dislike about an author's writing style and apply the lessons to my writing accordingly.
 

WinterDusk14

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China Mieville when he wrote Iron Council (each of his books have different voices). Though, it's going to be a bit of a hard sell for me, as the style encourages a lot of telling. But it's exactly what my WIP needs.
 

Tezzirax

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Well taking my NaNoWriMo project through the "I Write Like Analyzer" one chapter at a time was interesting.

Chapter 1 says I write like Anne Rice

Chapter 2 has me pegged as James Joyce (I can't get through more than a page of Ulysses)
Chapter 3 praises me as writing like J. R. R. Tolkien, perhaps because there are a lot of characters at a party and there is toasting going on.
Chapter 4 for some strange and peculiar reason I take on the guise of Douglas Adams
Chapter 5 I embroil everyone in the intrigue of Dan Brown.

Seriously? I either I am really all over the place or this thing is wacked. And I am probably really all over the place.
 

Roxxsmom

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Haven't had enough people read my writing yet for this to even have a chance to happen :Shrug:

However, I have many times used a website called I Write Like: http://iwl.me/

Not sure how it works, or how accurate it is (not very I'm guessing), but the results can be pretty funny :D

I've gotten probably ten different authors, depending on which of my stories I try. The one that crops up most often is, I think, Kurt Vonnegut, which is funny because I have yet to read anything by him (blasphemy, I know). I've gotten everything from Jack London, to Kipling, to Salinger. I get a LOT of old and dead writers, actually, which makes sense because I love stuff from the 19th/early 20th century. I think the most recent writer I've ever gotten was Chuck Palahniuk, who I've also never read.

Ohh what a fun toy, though I suspect they don't have very many genre fiction writers on their list. And of course, as a fantasy writer, it's more useful to know (for marketing purposes) whether you write like Stephen Donaldson, Robin Hobb or Robert Jordan than it is to know whether your style is a bit like James Joyce.


I am finding a bit of a pattern, though. The chapters with my female pov character (who is a healer and often has conversations about healing and magic related things with her colleagues) keep coming up as Ursula K Le Guin. The chapters with my male protagonist as the pov character (who I am told by my readers has a very distinct voice) has come up as being like writers ranging from Jack London to Stephen King to Dan brown. At least I got the male voice thing down :p The thing is, my male pov character is in a lot of different situations early on in the story. Some of his scenes are action heavy, and in some he is recovering (physically and emotionally) from the results of said action.

I wonder how much the topic of the character's conversations is driving this. I suspect there aren't too many fantasy writers in their database, so any chapter with a lot of words relating to magic will pop up Ursula K LeGuin.
 
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Ergodic Mage

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However, I have many times used a website called I Write Like: http://iwl.me/
I've used that site before and think it has a bug. So far it has given me Tolken, James Joyce and William Gibson which is an insult to them.
I think my writing is closer to Kilgore Trout, though I've heard he has a fan while I don't have any.
 
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Buffysquirrel

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For a few chapters of my supposed WIP, it gave me Douglas Adams. For a few paragraphs of the sequel, Ian Fleming.
 

Shadow_Ferret

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Someone many years ago said my writing reminded them of Nelson DeMille, an author who I had never even heard of at the time. I've since come to enjoy his writing, and I guess maybe there is a similarity in our "voice" if you squint hard enough.
 

Coco82

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That's a cool site. My last finished chapter said David Foster Wallace and my 1st chapter w/the same POV character said Douglas Adams, so go figure.
 

rwm4768

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I got Tolkien for my first chapter. I guess that's good.
 

blacbird

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I assume this is posted in the Fantasy forum because 912% of the writers who frequent AW are, or aspire to be, Fantasy writers. Otherwise, it could have been posted in AW Roundtable, or somewhere else.

Mostly, I resemble Eric Clapton.

caw
 

Dagrami

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Ha! That website gave me Stephen King for chapter 1 of my WIP. I'll take that, thank you very much!

Not sure how much I'll trust that judgement though...
 

Mr Flibble

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I've used that site before and think it has a bug.

I tried putting in a section from the POV of a whacked out loony with a bad case of PTSD and a side order of magic.

Apparently this sounds like Shakespeare, so I think you may be right!
 

Jamesaritchie

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Who would you say your writing resembles in some way? I of course know everyone's stlye is unique, but which author do you resemble maybe in character structure (ie how many characters you have) or how you structure your novel?

Everyone's style is not unique. Style is a common aspect of most writing, and thousands of writers all have the same basic style, and it's difficult to tell one from another. Only a few writers here and there really have good, distinctive, and unique styles, which is often what makes them famous.

In style, I compare to several writers, depending on what I'm writing, ranging from Mark Twain to Lawrence Block, to Louis L'Amour.

I don't think Character and novel structure mean much. Much less than voice and style, actually. Thousands and thousands of writers use the same basic novel structure, and roughly the same number of characters. I'm one of them.
 

RobertEvert

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I've used that site before and think it has a bug. So far it has given me Tolken, James Joyce and William Gibson which is an insult to them.
I think my writing is closer to Kilgore Trout, though I've heard he has a fan while I don't have any.

Kilgore! :hooray:

Let me ask this... when approaching a publisher or agent, should you say that you have a style like "x." Or that the ms is like a combination of this and that?

Stephen King seemed to say no, but I've often heard yes.
 
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