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I write like…

1/20/2011

4 Comments

 
Posted by Jon
Fancy a few moments of literary fun? If so, I may have the perfect diversion for you…

“I write like…” is a website that provides a:
​statistical analysis tool, which analyzes your word choice and writing style and compares them with those of the famous writers
​I started by pasting in a few of my fictional short stories (from a collection published earlier this year, available from all good bookstores – not that you know my pseudonym, of course, as I don’t mix business and pleasure!). Apparently, they vary between Anne Rice and Stephanie Meyer. (And no, they don’t feature vampires, before you ask!).

Next, to a recent Proposal Guys entry – which apparently reads like Joyce. (Hold on: is my writing here that incomprehensible?). I then threw in a few winning proposals I’ve written in the past year or so. Three of the five examples I tested were apparently in the style of H.P. Lovecraft – described by Stephen King as “the twentieth century’s greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale”. The other two came out as similar to Cory Doctorow, the Canadian sci-fi writer. (OK, so my proposals are scary and deal with entirely imaginary worlds?!).

Although I don’t claim to understand the metrics that lead to the site’s conclusions, or to vouch for the exercise’s scientific validity, it was interesting to see that there’s a fairly consistent style in my fiction writing, and a consistent but different style in the way I write proposals.

Anyone fancy playing? Whose writing is yours most like? And – especially interesting to know – can you spot any trends between winning and losing proposals that you’ve submitted?
4 Comments
ColaRai
3/25/2016 03:49:34 pm

Hi Jon! Wanted to let you know the site is slightly off…it should be http://iwl.me/
This is very fun though and I can’t wait to plug in past writing!
Cheers!

Reply
Ceri
3/25/2016 03:49:42 pm

Out of interest, and because I got bored of listening during a conference call, I tried this on my CV which is apparently in the style of HP Lovecraft. I therefore have to ask……is my life a classic horror tale? Slightly scary, but a bit of good fun for a moment of surreal comedy on a long afternoon.

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Ruth Turman
3/25/2016 03:49:53 pm

The timing of this is quite apropos as I was fortunate enough to have BJ on site last week and, over lunch and among other things, we discussed the difference between writing fiction and writing slick, sales worthy proposals and how I like to think that, personally, I KNOW I’m far better at the former than I am at the later.

I was telling him about the children’s book I’ve been endeavoring to write for YEARS. What was interesting was that I entered the first couple of paragraphs of one of my works of fiction and turns out IML thinks I write like JK Rowling (not a bad compliment and for the record that part of the story was written before the first of her books was published), but when I entered the entire first chapter it came back with Isaac Asimov (and I have a pretty strong suspicion as to why). I entered text from another fiction writing exercise and got Ray Bradbury. Hmmmm…

I mention all this because I know that when I take a “left brain / right brain / auditory / visual” test at work I invariably score an off the charts left brain visual. I take the same test on the same day after going home and I score strong right brain and considerably more toward the auditory (but still visual). All of which makes me wonder just how pervasive one’s writing environment might be on the results.

I’m just glad to know I don’t write like William Faulkner.

Reply
Stuart Pollard
3/25/2016 03:50:06 pm

Great fun, if of dubious scientific validity. Actually, I was rather hoping for Gabriel García Márquez but it was not to be. Instead, I got feedback covering:

H.P. Lovecraft (again)
Ian Fleming
Edgar Allan Poe

Most fun was derived from scrubbing and submitting a complete RFP response. This was the work of multiple authors and produced against a deadline that didn’t allow for much editing. The verdict was that specialist of the “literary nonsense” genre: Lewis Carroll.

Wonderful stuff!

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