A few weeks ago, Caroline asked me if I was practicing for writing a thriller, based on the way I began one of my blogs.
Today while listening to the news on NPR, I heard about a website called I Write Like, where you can submit a block of text you have written, and using algorithms based on the writings of many famous writers, it will analyze your text, and tell you who you write like. I submitted the first paragraph from my last bog entry, and it immediately told me that I wrote like Bram Stoker! No wonder Caroline thought I was practicing to to write a thriller. I was intrigued, so I also submitted the first paragraph of the blog that Caroline commented on, but instead of Bram Stoker, this time it said James Joyce! So I guess I'm destined to be either a writer of dark thrillers, or the writer of epic novels. Actually, I suspect I will get a different writer, every time I submit a different block of text.
If you would like to try it just for fun, just go to I Write Like, and submit a block of any text you have written. The site will not store, or use any text you submit for any other purpose. I'm curious to see which famous author each of you writes like.
Melissa XX
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15 comments:
Hey, Melissa, I write like James Joyce too! I put in a paragraph from my 'Girl Guides' post.
And when I submitted a paragaph from my slightly more recent 'Sark' post, it said i wrote like H P Lovecraft. Well! Such a stylistic progression in just a short space!
Supposing one asked it to analyse a passage from, say, Joyce's 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young man'. I wonder what it would say...
A piece I have just written is like David Foster Wallace! Never heard of him so at least it is not plagiarism.
I think they have a random name generator!
Caroline xxx
I just tried this with 5 different text and two were written like Steven King, and 2 were similar to David Foster Wallace, no kidding Caroline. I did not peek, and 1 passage was similar to Dan Brown. So who knows!
Melissa.. I tried some of my poetry "Screaming" from my blog.. they said "Steven King"
very interesting....
Naukishtae
I tried it with five different lengthy pieces of my writing and got back five different authors.
Junk in, junk out? :)
Melissa! You have just about destroyed my day. All work has stopped as I analyse my style.
I tried two pieces from my blog- "Tides, transatlantic", and "I'm not bored with the USA". Two returns: Daniel Defoe and David Foster Wallace. I am not worthy!
Bram Stoker and James Joyce!
To be compared to one Dublin writer is a misfortune to be compared to two is downright careless.
Re:Bram Stoker and James Joyce!
To be compared to one Dublin writer is a misfortune to be compared to two is downright careless.
LOL! Like Popeye says, "I yam, what I yam, and that's all that I yam!"
Melissa XX
Has anybody read this DFW guy or even heard of him? Is he any good? I don't want to be thought to be writing in the style of someone who is rubbish!
Caroline xxx
@Caroline. I was more flattered by Defoe. I confess to not knowing DFW either(but he seems well known in the US). Anyway found a snippet online, he seems witty, contemporary, but with a habit for too many clauses in a single sentence.......(yes quite accurate in my case). He certainly seemed to have taken more care in the short piece I read than most contemporary writers- so I think it's positive. Anyway next stop Amazon. I was hoping for a likeness to JG Ballard!
Nothing but a nefarious plot to get us all to read more! O.K. so I had to try it... from a post in April, Stephenie Meyer, then a more recent post, Vladimir Nabokov. Somewhat appropriate I guess; even my writing style can't settle on one gender! :P
James Joyce, Kurt Vonnegut, Stephenie Meyer, Charles Dickens, David Foster Wallace and Vladimir Nabokov. This thing is all over the field! Six samples input, six different authors determined... huh.
Melissa.
We really are'nt bothered by your yam. We just want you to keep on writtin. As I said before it is delightful to read!
DWKme
Cool site! It's not random, but I don't know what it's going on. I submitted four different blog entries. I got Cory Doctorow once, David Foster Wallace the other three. Lends a little credence to their method to be that consistent.
Now that I've read all the comments, I'm going to speculate that this site is a thinly veiled attempt to sell books by one David Foster Wallace!
If, as Claire says, it is keying in on multiple clauses and overly complicated construction, then Caroline, Claire and myself may well write like him, as evidenced by this sentence.
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