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I Write Like tells you which famous author you write like
Here's a nice way to give your ego a little boost and waste 30 seconds: take a chunk of something you've written, making sure that it's at least a few paragraphs long, and paste it into the text box at I Write Like. Hit the Analyze button, then wait for it to spit out the name of a famous author that your writing is somehow statistically similar to. It's fun, and it makes you feel good in that "really, I write like Stephen King?!" kind of way. Unfortunately, while I wouldn't want to call the method that it uses into question, the results are ... questionable.
I took a piece of writing of mine that I consider to be just garbage, and it told me that I write like Neil Gaiman. Now, I don't know much about his writing, but based on reputation alone, I'm certain that it's far better than the rubbish I plugged into this thing.
On the other hand, if you're a struggling author and you need to justify to your spouse that following your writing passion is going to pay off, you might consider giving them a look at I Write Like. Just be careful not to believe it yourself.
I mean, apparently this very post is similar to Dan Brown.
Comments
16
Subscribe to commentsnotnamedJul 27th 2010 8:17PM
This post is probably like Dan Brown because it contains the word "ego."
WilliamNighthawkJul 27th 2010 8:22PM
Mark Twain [Short Stories] (2 Times), Chuck Palahniuk [Novel Chapters] (3 Times), Arthur C. Clarke [Free Thinking], David Foster Wallace (4 Times) [Theories]
Thanks for putting this up, download squad. As a writer it is always great to see what analyzers (real and online) think my writing style is similar too. As you can see I did multiple tests ranging from short stories to personally created theories.
My dream is that one day people will be putting their name into an analyzer and hoping to get my name as one of the names their style is similar too. I'm also happy about the diversity. I can't stand coping another writers style. I want to write my own way and make my style unique to me. People will want to read my stuff not only because my stories are intriguing but because the way I write them adds a whole new level of entertainment.
"I'm an artist. I don't use brushes or pencils, pens or paint. I use words, and with my words, I paint portraits in your head." ~ William Nighthawk's Personal Motto
indypatriotfanJul 27th 2010 8:34PM
I write like Shakespeare: http://iwl.me/b/f0797b6c
Win.
HylicJul 27th 2010 10:51PM
I wouldn't get too excited, I pasted in a recipe, and got the same result
DeoWulfJul 27th 2010 8:42PM
Threw a horror story of mine into the mixer and it came out with Dan Brown. Okay....
JoshJul 27th 2010 9:43PM
Apparently my essay on the smoking ban Michigan implemented three months ago is like HP Lovecraft. I don't know how, but this site rocks for comparing me to Lovecraft.
HylicJul 27th 2010 11:01PM
I don't know what algorithm their using, but I put in a random recipe
http://lotsofinfo.tripod.com/S22gallonofgarlicdressing.htm
And it says I write like
William Shakespeare
WilliamNighthawkJul 28th 2010 11:08AM
I'm not exactly surprised that the recipe came up as the writer. It think it judges on how many big words you use, what words you use, how descriptive your words are, and what words come after your descriptive words. They don't actually analyze the writers style.
I imagine most recipes will come up as the much overrated (my opinion) Shakespeare
HylicJul 28th 2010 12:15PM
Your probably right, but I think it still says something about how "accurate" their results are.
Jim DunlopJul 27th 2010 11:52PM
Interesting.. Cool too. I tried out a wide cross-section of my various writings and overwhelmingly came up with David Foster Wallace, more than any other writer.
But then it occurred to me... What's the algorithm? What are the statistics being used? It seems a little unpredictable. So I tried some excerpts from various famous authors to see if they write like themselves... Well, I didn't have a chance to test this extensively but here's what I got so far.
Authors who write like themselves according to the analyzer:
Stephen King
Arthur C. Clarke
James Joyce
Authors who write like other writers:
John Grisham
Ernest Hemingway
Hunter S Thompson
I really wonder whether this thing is even accurate...
(BTW, this post is written like Kurt Vonnegut)
WilliamNighthawkJul 28th 2010 11:11AM
I'd been plugging some more data and I think either I'm eerily similar to the people I posted earlier or this site doesn't have a wide enough range of writers. I'm going to go with the later [because I hate to be to similar to anyone]
So I think, like I said just a minute ago, it goes more on the words you use than your writing style. Style is more than just words, it is how you use those words.
WilliamNighthawkJul 28th 2010 11:13AM
Though personally I would have loved to get Oscar Wilde.
KeegdnaBJul 27th 2010 11:44PM
I'll just leave this here http://bit.ly/c4znIV
JoshJul 28th 2010 9:29AM
This right here makes the site worth a mint.
sRcJul 28th 2010 8:22AM
plugging in just different stuff on my personal site, I sounded like Arthur C. Clarke, J.K. Rowling, and then I broke the website!
jeff.siegelJul 28th 2010 9:54AM
I used my wine writing and was told I was Jame Joyce. I used my political writing and was told I was H.P. Lovecraft. Considering that I was trained as a journalist, those are both pretty funny. Though my mom would like the comparison to Joyce.