While busily catching up on all the posts I’ve missed since I fell into this year’s NaNoWriMo, I happened upon CK’s post regarding the “I Write Like” writing analyzer/web tool. The page lets you insert examples of your writing and then spits out the famous author it deems your work to resemble the most.
I was intrigued.
So, I scrolled through the kingdom and pulled out several different kinds of posts to review, entered them into the tool, clicked on the analyze button, and here are the results:
A segment from this year’s NaNoWriMo project was written like: Ursula K. Le Guin
A random chatty post with updates from the kingdom was written like: Lewis Carroll
A chapter from my weekly western serial was written like: Robert Louis Stevenson
One of my silly flash fiction posts was written like: P. G. Wodehouse
My freshly pressed picture writing prompt post was written like: Isaac Asimov
One of my love poems to the Queen was written like: Margaret Atwood
The final chapter of my 2012 NaNo project was written like: Jack London
The YeahWrite post about the death of my grandfather was written like: Stephen King
My “Selcouth” Prompts for the Promptless post was written like: Stephen King
One of my favorite poems that was written like: James Joyce
One of my posts where I describe the sunrise was written like: Stephen King
……
Interesting, interesting, interesting.
Should I be worried that my writing style is all over the place and I “sound” different depending on the type of post I’m doing? Or, should I be impressed that I’m able to change that voice depending on the message I’m trying to convey?
What do you think? Is it good or bad that my results were so varied?
Then again, who cares!!!!
The tool said I write like Stephen King three different times. I’m. In. Heaven.
Nice! I got Stephen King and Cory Doctorow a lot on mine. I want to try to break it down by category, when I get the time (ha ha ha).
Hooray! 😀
I got those two over and over too. I think the writing thing just randomly generates an author. Why else would it have said I sounded like Shakespeare once? Goodness knows I am just like the Bard!
Your words do have a certain cadence to them. 😉
I think my voice varies from post to post. Perhaps when I have some time I’ll venture over to this site and see what it says about me.
Happy analyzing if you find some time.
I hadn’t really ever thought about the voice of any of the blogs I read beyond “It’s good and I like it.”
Me either.
I got Stephen King and Anne Rice 🙂
That King guy seems to be getting around. 😉
It’s wonderful that you’re so versatile.
Hooray!
I think so too. 😉
I think that’s confirmation of your multiple personalities …. Maybe you’ll have to create an avatar for each one … and do your own guest postings…
That’s hilarious!
I actually thought about creating a Jester gravatar at one time, but I would have needed a separate email address so I could keep it and the normal one I use and I didn’t want to go to that much trouble.
Oh, this is a fabulous time waster. I got two Stephen Kings, two Cory Doctorow, and one each of Chuck Palahniuk, James Joyce, and J D Salinger. I didn’t check my poetry or regular blogs. I see the day being frittered away.
Have fun!
I’m very jealous of the Salinger call out!
Though, I’m still riding high from my Stephen King hits! Nothing is going to bring me down.
It means that you have more than one tone of voice. What do you think would happen if we put King’s works through the tool? I bet it wouldn’t always recognize him
That is an even more intriguing question! Have his works been loaded into the tool and that’s how it works? Or, have key words just been used to distinguish between the various authors? Or, is it really just a random name generator and someone on the other end is stealing the words we foolishly post into the tool?
I vote for the latter. Has a better story in it^^
Good point! 🙂
My current chapter of “Worms Of Heaven” came back as Ian Flemming, and one of my poems came back as Dan Brown, which is enough to make me stop writing poetry,
Hahahaha…
That’s kind of funny and kind of sad.
Though, it has made me think of another question. If you put the poetry back in and run it again, will it spit out the same answer or will it change it up?
I think you’d hope it changed it, right?
Actually, I tried both samples twice, and got the same answer both times, so it isn’t random, it uses some sort of algorithm.
Good to know… but, sad for your poetry.
Then again, perhaps Dan Brown has some wonderful poems that just aren’t as famous as his other stuff…
It’s good to be varied, it means you are a skilled writer in many different genres so be proud. Variety also keeps life interesting, or spicy as the saying goes.
OoO, spicy! 😉 I like it.
wow, shows you are versatile and love the s king one )
😀
What a fun site! I had so much fun, I added the badge to mine. In three sample, I came out as Margaret Atwood, William Gibson and (tada) Stephen King. I’m none of these, but I sure would like to be. Totally cool. Thanks.
Make sure you go thank CK for finding it and posting about it first, too! 😀
No wonder I enjoy your posts so much 🙂
When I’m feeling self-confident I’ll give that site a try!!
Be brave! You’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Oh..I am jealous…to write like Stephen King is awesome!
I tried that thingy out…I got some names that I’ve never ever heard of! LOL
Did you Google them to see who they were? I wonder if you’d end up liking their works…
I did Google them..I had to! Took myself to Wikipedia…I can’t remember the name…it started with a C..Cory…I know he’s from BC in Canada and he writes…science fiction sort of books….and I took posts from my blog..you understand…well, maybe it would be considered science fiction by some…more fiction…than science..hahaha.
I got Stephen King on a few of my snippets I submitted as well, oddly enough, only the ones that contained cussing! Outside of him, I was all over the place as well….
Fun!
I wonder if King keeps showing up for all of us because he is a versatile writer too. While often considered a horror author, he has written something in pretty much every genre.
I enjoy many styles, which explains the fact that I enjoy your blog!
😀
Thanks very much for pointing us to this extremely fun gizmo that’ll I likely obsess over for weeks. I tested three of my posts on three dissimilar subjects from the last ten days, written under very different mindsets; I got one Cory Doctorow, one Mark Twain, and one H. P. Lovecraft.
Frankly, I’m baffled on what conclusions to draw. So, SO weird.
Mark Twain!
That’s awesome. If I still wasn’t sailing high from my Stephen King hits I’d be super jealous. 😉
I did it with three very different pieces and got Stephenie Meyer, Douglas Adams and HP Lovecraft. I have now resolved never to write fiction in 1st person ever again.
Hahahaha
But, Douglas Adams is awesome! 😀 You’ve got comedy genius up your sleeve.
The thing is, the piece that it reckons is Douglas Adams isn’t particularly very funny. I’ve posted it on my (poorly neglected, just like my regular blog) writing blog, at http://storiesfromthechocolaterie.wordpress.com/2013/05/24/waking-up/
But if the Interwebz says I write like Mr Adams, who am I to complain? 😉
Exactly! Don’t over think it. Smile, nod, pat yourself on the back, and get back to writing. 😀
Yes, Mr Jester Sir! 😀
I might just have a look through the fictions I’ve got on the go and do something. Actually, I wrote a short piece the other day, I just need to type it up. Thank you for reminding me!