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Who Do You Write Like?

Tuesday, 20 July 2010

Thanks to Anne R. Allen for pointing me at the I Write Like page, where you can discover which famous writer's prose your own (supposedly) resembles. You paste in some of your work and it performs a statistical analysis to find a match. You just can't avoid trying it can you?

Mind you, I'd take it with a pinch of salt. I tried various short stories and novel chapters of mine and found that :


I write like
Douglas Adams
I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

and


I write like
H. G. Wells
I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

and


I write like
J. K. Rowling
I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!


Which, OK, I'm happy with - three writers I love - but it seems a little unlikey I resemble all of them.

And, unable to resist the temptation, I then typed in a bad swear word a hundred times and was told :



I write like
William Gibson
I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!


Which seems just a wee bit harsh on Gibson ...

Who did you get when you try?

Posted by Simon Kewin at 08:00

14 comments:

  1. Thomas Taylor20 July 2010 at 08:49

    My last blog post has me writing like David Foster Wallace, but a sample of my fiction suggests I'm more like Jack London. I'm happy enough with that:)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous20 July 2010 at 09:43

    My samples yielded Neil Gaiman, David Foster Wallace and James Joyce.

    When pasted in together, the David Foster Wallace and James Joyce pieces apparently most resembled the work of Charles Dickens.

    It's a fun application, but as with many of these memes, there's a hefty bias towards white, male, English speakers (the last of which one could conceivably defend - the other two, not so much).

    ReplyDelete
  3. Simon Kewin20 July 2010 at 10:04

    Thomas,

    Jack London is good! I'm afraid I don't know who David foster Wallce is - is that wrong?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Simon Kewin20 July 2010 at 10:06

    Kate,

    I do agree with you as regards the cultural bias. I was secretly hoping for Le Guin myself. Quite envious of Gaiman and Joyce : that's quite a combination.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Old Kitty20 July 2010 at 10:44

    I write like HG Wells!! Apparently!! Yay! LOL!

    take care
    x

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ellen Brickley20 July 2010 at 10:53

    I got Neil Gaiman and Stephen King - Gaiman for my fantasy novel and King for my literary fiction. Yes, really. . . I'm pretty flattered but am also taking the results with a truckload of salt!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Simon Kewin20 July 2010 at 10:59

    Old Kitty,

    You and me both!

    Ellen,

    I'm sure it's a very fair comparison!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous20 July 2010 at 17:28

    I've avoided it! I haven't been in the least tempted to look at the site. Why would I? It isn't going to say you write like Martine McCutcheon because then you'd have to kill yourself and they'd be responsible. As someone said - it's about flattery and nothing else. (Sue -of course)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Simon Kewin20 July 2010 at 18:24

    Sue,

    Er, it's a bit of fun?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anne R. Allen20 July 2010 at 18:43

    Kind of addictive, isn't it? I keep hoping one of my stories will get a William Shakespeare. But I'm stuck with James Joyce and David Foster Wallace. I'm sure Wallace was brilliant, but he wrote depressing, boring books about depressed, boring people in order to make statements about depression and boredom. Then he shot himself. Not high on my list of gotta-reads.

    Today on my blog I have a link to an interview with the guy who invented the "I write like" software. It works on the same principle as a spam detector. English isn't even his native language. Kind of an amazing dude.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Simon Kewin20 July 2010 at 19:13

    Anne,

    Thanks for that - I'll definitely give that interview a read. And thanks for the original link.

    ReplyDelete
  12. K M Kelly20 July 2010 at 20:41

    OOh - Arthur C Clark!!

    :-)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous20 July 2010 at 20:52

    Sue

    Martine McCutcheon isn't in there, but Dan Brown is; and from the reactions on Twitter, not many people feel flattered by the comparison!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Simon Kewin20 July 2010 at 21:22

    Kate,

    Actually, I didn't even know Martine McCutcheon was a writer. Impressed about Arthur C. Clarke though!

    ReplyDelete

I'd love to know what you think.