Kathy compared my writing to Marisha Pessl, and that reminded me of this awesome/funny/not likely to be accurate website someone forwarded to me years ago called I Write Like. At the time the site said I wrote like E. L. Doctorow after analyzing a blog post, but I can’t recall which one I pasted in the box. I did it again just now using my plant doctor post and it says I write like David Foster Wallace. Hmmmm. Interesting that they are both males. I wonder if I have male voice, these men have feminine voices, or the system has more male authors that female.
I haven’t read either author, though Foster Wallace taught at my university (after I attended) and is on my unread library list. Frankly, while I hate to speak ill of the dead, Foster Wallace always struck me as the kind of professor who would party with his students. The headbands and desperate ponytail didn’t diminish the creep factor for me.
I love sites like this, though I put little credence into the results. They’re fun, and only fun. If you try out the site, leave your badge in the comments so I can see who you write like. The site will give you a long code that you can just copy and paste in the comments.
Yay! Procrastination!
p.s. Because it’s a code you are inserting in the comments, I’ll have to manually approve your comment. If it doesn’t pop up right away, that’s why.
Love this Jules! And procrastination, of course…
I write likeCory DoctorowI Write Like. Analyze your writing!
I write likeCory DoctorowI Write Like. Analyze your writing!
I write like a prolific male blogger/author whom I’ve never actually read. Okay then.
Same with me! I haven’t read Doctorow or Foster Wallace. I guess that means we are being authentic, right? Another make author, too. Once again: Hmmmm.
Wait, do you write like E.L. or Cory Doctorow? I’ve read E.L. (he’s traditional & you might like him…like John Irving.) Between here & Facebook, I’m interested to see if anyone writes like a female.
E.L. Doctorow. That’s funny, because John Irving is actually one of my favorite authors. I’m desperate to see if this site even recognizes female authors, or if we all have male voices due to a like finding like.
Tried again with a snippet of a personal essay, & this time I write like William Gibson. He’s sort of sci-fi/futuristic. Hmmm…..
Do you think the style between samples is different enough to warrant the changes? I should put in more posts and see if I can get one ding-dang female author!
Well that was fun. Apparently I write like L. Frank Baum.
I don’t think I’m in Kansas anymore, Toto… ;)
And when I tried a different blog post sample, I now write like “Chuck Palahniuk” who wrote “Fight Club”… which I’ve never read. It seems to be slanted towards male authors…
I’m telling you! I want ONE PERSON to report back that they write like a famous female author.
Hmm.
I write likeChuck PalahniukI Write Like. Analyze your writing!
Another sample garnered:
I write likeJames JoyceI Write Like. Analyze your writing!
I write like JD Salinger? Weird.
I write likeJ. D. SalingerI Write Like. Analyze your writing!
There are worse things!
Just as a test…I entered an excerpt from Louisa May Alcott’s first chapter of Little Women. My thinking was that, if there’s going to be a famous woman author, surely it will be Alcott, right?
Nope.
Mark Twain.
I write likeMark TwainI Write Like. Analyze your writing!
It’s all men, I’m convinced. I did it three times — the first two times I used paragraphs from the same e-mail and got Stephen King and Cory Doctorow. The third time I used a piece of legalese from a work document and got David Foster Wallace. Dirty skunks.
I got Chuck Palahniuk. I admire his writing, but I’m with you on the female thing.
I write like Isaac Asimov. (Guess I should finish up that futuristic robot novel.) Second post, J. D. Salinger.
I pasted a passage from To Kill a Mockingbird and was told that Harper Lee writes like Margaret Mitchell.
A female! I’m sure Margaret Mitchell writes like a man.
Louisa May Alcott writes like Mark Twain.
Okay, I could do this all day. BACK TO WORK, LIZZY
Oh shit. I write like Margaret Atwood. I. Am. Canadian.
Also put in a different section, and it came out as Anne Rice, uhm, okay.
Two women.
JENN, YOU ARE OUR HERO!!!!!!!!!!!!
That, or the developers are reading this thread and are desperately coding females to pop up. ;)
Ha ha ha.
Just got Daniel Defoe, and so it ends with the female component of the writing experiment.
Take a section that has a lot of ‘I’s in it…see if that ends up as female (just sayin’).
Now what the hell is that supposed to mean? We women write a lot about ourselves? Ooooh this site!!
Okay, maybe I just write like a Canadian, as I’ve now gotten Margaret Lawrence, Margaret Atwood, and Cory Doctorow… and Tolkien (he’s totally Canadian).
Think all this says is that I don’t have a ‘style’
The Canadian part might just be how I spell things (perhaps?) – like centre and colour.
I entered my last 5 blog posts, separately, to see if there was any rhyme or reason to this. I got: Dan Brown, Cory Doctorow, Margaret Atwood, Cory Doctorow, and Douglas Adams. So…I’m most like Cory Doctorow? I’ll take it!
I submitted two sad journal passages — the before and after of putting down our dog last week [the only long samples of my writing on my laptop] — the first said David Foster Wallace and the second H. P. Lovecraft. I’d never heard of Foster Wallace and I’ve never read Lovecraft. My journals are written as I speak, so I speak like Foster Wallace and Lovecraft write?
Panya, I don’t think *anybody* speaks like Lovecraft writes, unless you’re working words such as eldritch, rugose, charnel and miasma into everyday speech!
I am very sorry about your dog. Take care.
Sigh. I’m so sorry, Panya. My Buddy and Buster (almost 13) are getting so, so old. It makes me very sad. They don’t have much time with us.
Since dork apparently wasn’t an option, it gave me this:
I write likeCory DoctorowI Write Like. Analyze your writing!
I used my most recent blog post and got this:
I write like H. P. Lovecraft I Write Like. Analyze your writing!
Ha! Apparently I write like Charles Dickens. Too funny.
I put in several paragraphs from the introduction to my PhD thesis (in mechanical engineering, if that makes any difference), and apparently my writing for that is like Edgar Allan Poe. I haven’t tried it with a less-formal piece of writing yet – I guess I’d get quite a different result!
I’m feeling very inferior right now. No Dickens Or Poe for me. Nope, just me and Stephen King. However, you could make a number of hit movies based on my prose.
OK, so I put in a little story I’ve working on and it says, I write like Mary Shelley.
Then, I decided to try my fantasy story and it says I write like J.R.R. Tolkien . . . which warmed the cockles of my heart. If only . . . sigh.
You know, this reminds of me of a professor I had in college. She gave me a lower grade on an assignment and included this long note on how I needed to stop trying to write like Mark Twain or some author I had never even heard of. Let’s just say I wrote a little note back, and my grade went up. :)
I pasted three times. I got Cory Doctorow twice and David Foster Wallace once. I don’t know who these people are! Am I ignorant?
I just did some of my own writing and came up with David Foster Wallace, so I guess we’re full circle now, at least in the comments!
I tried 4 times. Got Raymond Chandler, Chuck Palahniuk (never heard of him), JRR Tolkien (my heart almost stopped!), and Stephen King.
I was sort of hoping for Erma Bombeck.
Ah, well…
I write like Jack London…whom I am completely unfamiliar with. However, his bio on wikipedia makes him and his writing sound interesting….
I write like Dan Brown, then with a different sample, like Arthur Clarke. Perhaps I should start writing suspense novels?
Has anyone gotten a female author yet?
I tried four different fragments, and got David Foster Wallace, Gertrude Stein, Cory Doctorow and Stephenie Meyer. I’m not sure whether I should be pleased or offended.
Funny, I got Anne Rice. I do not see it.
I L.O.V.E. how you write!!!!
You write how I would write if I wer more clever and witty. ;)
Honestly, my blogging role model.
I’m so glad I found you.
I have a blog all set up, with zilch content. I need to ,get on that. Mine’s going to be super boring though. :-/
It’s going to be a lazy, post here and there about this and that sort of blog. Once I start posting ;P
Procrastination is ‘s delicate art form you know.