Thursday 22 July 2010

I write like...

One of the good folk who follow this blog (thanks again, Mean Queen) was very complimentary about my writing style recently, so when East of North drew my attention to the "I Write Like" site, I thought I'd see what it came up with.

"I Write Like" is a site which claims to determine which author's style your own writing most resembles. All you have to do is cut and paste a chunk of text into the space provided, then click on the "Analyze" button for it to give you its verdict.

"Jolly good," I thought, "I'll try my most recent blog post and see what it makes of that."
As you can imagine, I was really pleased to discover that I write like Douglas Adams.


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

Naturally, I wondered if it would give the same answer for other samples from the blog so I submitted another post for scrutiny.
This time I was likened to James Joyce.
"James Joyce! Blimey, how cool is that!", I thought.

Then it all went downhill.

A couple more posts were offered up for analysis and to my dismay they revealed that their style matched that of Dan Brown.
My dreams of being a literary giant were well and truly punctured.

Then, just for a laugh, I analyzed a business document that I had written and the result was...
disturbing.

Let me put it this way. If you were a manager and received a document that had been written in the style of the man described by Stephen King as "the twentieth century's greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale.", how do you think you would react?

Yes, I write like H. P. Lovecraft.

7 comments:

  1. What a great site! And I too got the Douglas Adams accolade for my rant (and wallow in the irony here) about how awful the Eoin Colfer Hitchhikers book was.

    Best of all though, my second attempt came up with my literary hero Kurt Vonnegut. Goes to show all that reading rubs off somewhere, somehow?

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  2. The comment I just posted also came up as Kurt Vonnegut!!!

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  3. I thought it would appeal to you.
    In fact, I was surprised that you hadn't already clocked it.

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  4. First I was James Joyce, then I was Stephen King. I don't know who they are.

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  5. Although Stepehen King is usually labelled as a horror writer, I've always enjoyed his stuff.

    He wrote one of the finest short stories I've ever read. It's "Mrs Todd's Shortcut" and you'll find it in the anthology "Skeleton Crew". It's not horror, but it's a tale with an element of strangeness that works very well for me.

    (I've never read any Joyce)

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  6. OMG what a FUN site... I write like Margaret Atwood and apparently also like Charles Dickens. I am ecstatic about both comparisons... but can't help but think that teacher's comments would be... 'needs to be more consistent'. I mean to say... Margaret Atwood one day and Charles Dickens the next!!

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  7. Just be thankful that you aren't writing like Jeffery Archer.
    ;)

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