Man, do I really suck that bad? [who do you write like? quiz]

jdm

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I just pasted a couple of paragraphs of the first chapter in my next western novel (short story? haven't figured it out yet) into one of those "I write like" websites and came up with James Fenimore Cooper. Tried another couple of paragraphs and came up with Cooper again. Pasted the whole chapter in and guess what? Cooper once more.

Man! I consider Cooper to be the most boring writer I have ever read in my life (if you don't count Tolkein) and haven't read anything by him since college many years ago. He took the western and turned it into the first cure for insomnia.

Am I channeling his dead (and boring) spirit as punishment for some past literary transgression? Or could it be that I really suck that bad? Lol. I would rather re-write the whole chapter (only one I have completed yet) and try a different style than be pegged as the next Cooper.

Most everybody has tried one of these websites at one time. Did you ever come out compared to a writer you absolutely hated? (This is written mostly tongue in cheek. I don't really feel these things are accurate by any means.)
 

DarthPanda

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That thing is such crap.

I just went to it, typed "fuck" over and over, hit enter and it told me I write like Stephen King. :ROFL:
 
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katci13

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It said I write like Chuck Palahniuk. I write fantasy but I'll take it! ^_^ Lol!
 

jdm

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That thing is such crap.

I just went to it, typed "fuck" over and over, hit enter and it told me I write like Stephen King. :ROFL:

Given people's varying tastes, I would venture there are those out there who would say it hit the nail on the head when it comes to King.
 

jdm

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Hmm, I write like Margaret Mitchell. Hmm. When did she ever write post apocolyptia?

Weird! I got her several times when I pasted parts of my first novel into it. But anyone except Cooper! Aaaaahg! I may have to give up writing,lol.
 

jdm

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That thing is such crap.

I just went to it, typed "fuck" over and over, hit enter and it told me I write like Stephen King. :ROFL:

I typed in "That thing is such crap," over and over again and got Kurt Vonnegut. You are a literary giant! :D

Pasting in your second sentence gave me James Joyce. You are on a roll.
 

Anninyn

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I apparently write like Ursula K LeGuin. I think that's because I'm writing other world fantasy, so there's lots of made up words in there. Because believe me, nothing I pasted in is even CLOSE to her level of skill or writing style.

Edit: Just typed 'Fuck You' over and over again and got William Gibson.
 

redpbass

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Tried a chapter and got Daniel Defoe. Dear lord, I don't do that, do I...?!

I mean, perhaps, if one were to say, in a manner that may, or may not, one can never be sure, after all, what is meant, when, in those rare moments, one comes across such a thing as an author, who, in a moment of sublime insanity, throws logic and common, or uncommon, decency to the wind, and utterly slaughters even the simpler sort of grammatical rules and, often enough, those rules which, since ancient times, govern even the lowly comma, which, in reality, should be there for a reason, such as, but not singly, the ease of the reader, perhaps, as if the author wishes, for some unusual reason, to utterly qualify every statement, whether it needs it or not, in order to make his meaning, a very important thing in any age, apparent to you, gentle reader, who, no doubt, have, as have I, long since lost the thread of this, most mystifying, run-on sentence, if it ever had such a thing as, as you, gentle reader, are, most likely, well aware, a thread, in the first place.

Or something like that.
 

DarthPanda

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I typed in "That thing is such crap," over and over again and got Kurt Vonnegut. You are a literary giant! :D

Pasting in your second sentence gave me James Joyce. You are on a roll.

This is totally going on my query letter.
 

archerjoe

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Sample 1: Margaret Atwood
Sample 2: Rudyard Kipling
Sample 3: Stephen King
Sample 4: Kurt Vonnegut
Sample 5: Lewis Carroll

Hmmm - something seems kind of random here.
 

Jozzy

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That site uses frequency counts for it's "analysis" and doesn't look at structure at all. Try mixing the words in your text and you'll get the same result.
 

DarthPanda

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Okay, I'm gonna make my own writes-like analysis thingumajig.

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jdm

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DarthPanda:

Love it! The third one pretty much has me pegged.:roll:
 

Goldbirch

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A few years ago I fed one of those things a few Kipling excerpts, and it said he wrote like Bram Stoker, James Joyce, and Chuck Palahniuk. Did this with a couple other authors. Apparently Shakespeare writes like James Joyce, too.

That got my friends to stop taking their results too seriously. :)
 

Jamesaritchie

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I love all of Cooper's novels. I'll complain about them when I can write novels that are still being read two hundred years later, and have been made into eight bazillion films.