I Write Like …
October 30, 2011 52 Comments
I found this on Rikki’s blog – she refers to a website that analyses some text that you’ve written and tells you which author your writing style seems most like. Rikki writes like J. D. Salinger!
I put in some paragraphs of a book I was writing a few months ago and…
.
I haven’t read anything by James Joyce but I understand his writing is very difficult and experimental. Did the program just not understand my writing maybe? 😉
For NaNoWriMo I am considering whether to write in Dutch or English. As I’m reading the rather literary The Stranger’s Child by Alan Hollinghurst at the moment and feel I could never write as good as that, I was leaning toward writing my NaNoWriMo novel in Dutch.
But if it’s true that my English writings are like James Joyce… 🙂
Who do YOU write like?
About Judith
Leeswammes' Blog 
James Joyce, huh? Not bad!!!
In that case I don’t think English would be a problem. You can always say people don’t understand your sophisticated style, :).
Ha, ha! Thanks for the encouragement, Rikki! 🙂
This was great fun – thank you 🙂 Apparently I write like Mark Twain, but I haven’t read much of him so I don’t know about that…
Wordsfall, I read some Mark Twain a long time ago, and I think it was quite entertaining. You should at least pick up one of his books to see what it’s like. Ah, I bet you can get some of his work from the gutenberg project that has all the classics in e-format.
Another great one 😀 !!
Allegedly I write like Edgar Allan Poe and/or Ursula K. LeGuin depending on the text I use.
P.S.: I’ve been trying to find a list with all the authors they have, but haven’t found anything so far. It would be interesting to find out who’s “available”.
Indeed, Birgit. And also, I would love to know a bit more about the algorithm behind this.
I think you’ve got some respectable authors there. Keep writing! 🙂
I took some of my draft novel to analyze and it gave me JD Salinger too :O
Well, that’s nice! I’d read it, Cindy.
That’s lovely! I’m up to visit that site, but does it takes Dutch? I rarely write in English and hate making mistakes..
But which author?? maybe some crossover between the Brönte sisters, Jane Austen en J.K. Rowling mixed in with some Dutch writers: Multatuli and Hella Haasse?
Karin, I doubt it takes Dutch but you could try. If you’re really a cross between all those authors then you’ll be famous very soon after NaNoWriMo, I’m sure!
In my dreams…
Now, this is such a compliment! 🙂
Indeed, Ally. I just wish I knew if it was based on something real!
I think you always write better in your mother tongue, because you are grown up with it, but ofcourse your English is really good after being in England for so long. I think it’s a difficult decision to make. What is easiest?
I’m not sure what’s easiest, Katrien. I think in English my vocabulary is smaller – although this is true especially for words that are less-used anyway. But since I know what ubiquitous and conspicuous mean, I think I’m fine. 🙂
I tried this a couple of months ago and it came up with different authors every time I put in a new fragment. I even tried out a quote from Beyond Sleep by W.F. Hermans (a book we both love) and it told me that W.F. Hermans writes like …. Arthur C. Clarke! LOL!
Anna, hmm, Hermans = Clarke? Hmm, I don’t know about that. I’m sure we shouldn’t take it too seriously.
Now I wonder who Arthur C. Clarke writes like!
This was fun. I got two different authors’ names when I plugged in some of my writing!
Hmm, Harvee, is it the program that isn’t consistent or is it your writing? 🙂 Hope they were “good” authors.
I did this a while ago and I write like J K Rowling, I tried it again and I got the same result 😉
I see a 7-part successful series in your future, Louise!
I did this too and also write like James Joyce and like you I’m not a native English speaker… What does that tell us? Dubliners isn’t experimental at all, btw. It’s just beautiful prose.
Caroline, glad to find another writer of quality prose. 🙂
I have no idea what it means. Maybe our style is slightly different from standard and somehow the same is true with Joyce. II checked in Wikipedia and it doesn’t say anything about him being a native speaker of Irish, which is what you might expect.
I love this site! I got addicted. The one I write the most like is Neil Gaiman. Never read anything by him. The runner up was Cory Doctorow.
Carol
Neil Gaiman writes nice fantasy. I’ve read a few things by him. Cory Doctorow I tried but didn’t like it so much. I tried his Little Brother, but it wasn’t for me. But you could check his writing style, here: http://craphound.com/littlebrother/download/ .
I write like Ursula K. LeGuin who is one of my favorites. 🙂
That’s really nice, James!
Well, I did it with three different pieces, and came up with two names, neither of which I have ever heard of. Cory Doctorow was the winner with David Foster Wallace the runner-up.
Amanda, see my comment a little higher if you want to sample some of Cory Doctorow’s writing. DFW is a difficult writer from what I understood, haven’t tried him myself.
I write like Joyce too…my guess is Dubliners, not Finnegans Wake! Very fun, thanks for sharing, Robin
I went back to the site and plugged in my last ten long posts…turns out I have a personality disorder,
Robin
Oh dear, Robin. Let’s leave it in the middle whether it’s you that’s not consistent or the program. Or maybe you’re just very good at mimicking other writers!
Oh cool! I just tested my writing and will post about the result on my blog later this evening. Okay. I’ll already spill the beans. I write like H.P. Lovecraft, known for horror and a subgenre called weird fiction.
Hmm, haven’t read anything by Lovecraft, Sabrina. But weird fiction sounds quite special. 🙂
I write like James Joyce too, based on one of my poems translated into English.
Wow, there you go, Karin. Not bad at all.
Apparently I write like Rudyard Kipling. I fed it some of my weekend birding posts.
That’s funny, Leslie!
It is! My first thought was maybe it’s looking at content rather than analyzing writing style.
Well, unlike James Joyce, I find your writing very readable :-). That said, it is a high compliment to be compared to one of the greatest writers of English literature.
I went to the website and my writing is compared to Ursula K. Le Guin. I’ve heard of her but have never read any of her work.
Suzanne, Le Guin I’ve also heard of but never read. Since all the answers are famous writers, you always win! 🙂
I tried this this morning. My last post = Stephen King. My last book review = HP Lovecraft. A 2010 book review = Chuck Palahniuk
Wonder what this says about me?!
Great fun!
Mari, that is quite a mixture of authors! So, regarding the book reviews, have you “improved” from Palahniuk to Lovecraft, or is that a downgrade? 🙂
They’re all good authors, I think.
I am not familiar with Palahnuik or Lovecraft so I don’t know the answer to that question. That’s okay though… I don’t write reviews like most book reviews. I try just tell the reader if I liked it or now. If I wrote more, it would be in bullet points (my career is spend writing bullet points…) HA!
Mari, I tihnk it matters hugely what type of text you use. Mine was novel-like prose which is likely to be very different from the way I write my reviews. It’s probably the same for you.
wow, that’s very cool. James Joyce? That must have made your day! 🙂
I did make my day, Joanna, until I started to become suspicious of what that in fact might mean.
It seems that two or so other non-native English also had James Joyce, so maybe there’s something about our writing that distinguishes us.
I got H.P. Lovecraft hahaha too funny.
Very respectable, Rachel!
Oh wow, this is a little weird. Apparently I write like Stephen King (I wish!) I nearly fell off the chair when I read that, as he is my favorite author. That’s a funny little game, thanks! 🙂
Delia, how nice to write like your favorite author! 🙂
Pingback: If At First You Don’t Succeed… « Writers For Life