Who do you write like?

branchwag said:

Would anyone else like to try and how accurate do you think this thing is?

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I tried this once with a bit from a different book I wrote, and it said I wrote most like Stephen King. I couldn't have disagreed more.

I tried it with my current WIP and it gave me Arthur C. Clark. Much more flattering, in my opinion, but I don't see the similarities. Maybe in my liberal use of colons and semicolons, but that's about it.

And, while we're on the topic, has anyone ever told you that you write like someone else? If so, who? Did you think it was true?

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I very humbly admit, and only because you asked ten months ago, that many people have told me my writing reminds them of Vladimir Nabokov's, "in a good way," which I guess means that they can see the influence without it looking like I'm actually trying to write like him. Since I've heard this now from several different people who had no special reason to flatter me, I have to assume that there is some kind of similarity there, although I will never ever ever be as good as he was, if I live to be a hundred and seven and write every day of my life. Nobody can touch His Nabs; certainly not this humble, uneducated, backcountry-raised scribbler.

Do I think it's true? Well, I do read a ton of Nabokov, so I'm sure my love for his style permeates my own writing to some noticeable degree. I feel very fortunate that the same people also were quick to assure me (without prompting, thank god) that I do have a distinctive style of my own, so I hope I can be secure in feeling that I am finding my own, admittedly Nabokov-influenced voice and not trying to knock off a master's work.

Personally, I think there's just as much Fitzgerald and Bradbury and Oates in my style, but nobody has remarked on that. So who knows.

I know I don't write like Stephen King, though. And I doubt I write all that much like Artie Clark.

So, I put in an exposition piece and I got James Joyce.
I put in a string of dialogue and got Dan Brown (ouch).
I put in a mixture of both and got Rudyard Kipling.

Now..... James Joyce is my literary nemesis (along with Henry James), Dan Brown is just insulting (the only thing that would be worse is that Meyer Twilight chick) and Rudyard Kipling is just a big WTF.

I agree that this is totally bogus, but still very fun. Thanks for sharing the link!

Apparently I write like Dan Brown. Though I don't really get it. I submitted three samples of writing, the two from my current novel came up "Dan Brown" and my current short project was "William Gibson".

Honestly I prefer the Gibson comparison, but as long as I can sell like Dan Brown I'd be happy with that.

The first act of Hamlet is apparently like William Shakespeare, and Chapter 20 of Huckleberry Finn is written like Mark Twain, so I guess it's pretty accurate.

Lol! This is awesome, I got Stephen King for my first story, J. R. R. Tolkien for the second, and Chuck Palahniuk on the third. I think my writing style must be all over the place!

Oh my gosh! I wrote " Hi there, my name is jessica bradham and I just want to know what you'll do with this. It's not really a story, nor is it a blog, this is just me writing random nonsense. I'm 23 years old and I actually had to check to know for sure, which is kind of pathetic. My friend used this too and got some interesting results. "

and got

I write like
Stephenie Meyer

Hehehe apparently my random nonsense is written like a current best selling author's! I laughed so hard Poor Stephanie Meyer!

I write like me.

Somewhere between Gen Urobuchi (meh) and Dean Kootz (without the dictionary of vocab)

Epic, with subtle scenes that make you lean back and go "holy..."

For years I focused on my own writing style, developing my personal writing. I've never tried to copy anyone also.

JessicaJoy said:

I write like
Stephenie Meyer

Hehehe apparently my random nonsense is written like a current best selling author's! I laughed so hard Poor Stephanie Meyer!

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... I do too.

I picked up Twilight in my mother's room while cleaning and flipped through a couple pages. I was pissed.

Since then, I changed my writing and it turned out better.

BotByte said:

... I do too.

I picked up Twilight in my mother's room while cleaning and flipped through a couple pages. I was pissed.

Since then, I changed my writing and it turned out better.

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Lol well this was just random nonsense. I wrote "Hi there, my name is jessica and I just want to know what you'll do with this. It's not really a story, nor is it a blog, this is just me writing random nonsense. I'm 23 years old and I actually had to check to know for sure, which is kind of pathetic. My friend used this too and got some interesting results."

That's why I thought it was so funny. Because they compared my random meandering writing to Stephanie Meyer. For my stories though I got Stephen King and J. R. R. Tolkien (being compared to Tolkien, even by a computer, made my squeak with joy!)

Chuck Palahniuk!

Does anyone know what the first rule of fight club is?

No matter how unreliable this is, there is at least some rhyme and/or reason to it. I typed in a couple lines worth of the single word 'Lolita' and it said 'I' write like Nabokov.

I already gave a broad overview here of how the program works. Most of you wouldn't understand a more technical explanation.

I put in the first chapter of my novel and got H.P. Lovecraft (it's a science fiction novel).

I put in three scenes from a short story I'm working on (fantasy) and got Anne Rice, William Shakespeare and H.G. Wells.

Huh.

I put in the first three pages of my newest chapter I'm working on and it came up with Jonathan Swift.

Just to mess with the program I took an excerpt from a Dutch anatomy text. Apparently Dutch is the language of Mark Twain.

I suspect it just analyses word-length, sentence-length, paragraph-length, and a few other factors.

I think it probably falls back on stuff like word length if it fails to find a closer pattern... inspired by Drachen's foray into Dutch, I snagged some random Cyrillic text off moscow.ru and discovered that Russian journalists write like James Fenimore Cooper.

However, when the same text is first translated into English, they write like Cory Doctorow.

I conclude that Cory Doctorow writes like James Fenimore Cooper, or perhaps v.v. if you have a working time machine.

I just put in the Declaration of Independence. Apparently, Thomas Jefferson and the rest of the Founding Fathers wrote like H.P. Lovecraft.

According to the site, I write like Chuck Palahniuk. Really, it's hard for me to identify who I write like. I read widely, and I'm easily influenced.

I got Cory Doctorow, J K Rowling and Jack London for three different pieces of the same work.

I entered the first line of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises ("Robert Cohn was once middleweight boxing champion of Princeton."), and I got...you write like Kurt Vonnegut.

lol - this is cool.

Apparently I write like Stephen King. Who would have guessed...lol.

JBuck said:

I got Cory Doctorow, J K Rowling and Jack London for three different pieces of the same work.

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Obviously it was a collaborative effort.