I Write Like...website analyzes your writing style!

cobsie

http://iwl.me/

This is silly, but fun. Cut 'n paste a chunk of your prose into this site and have their algorithm elves match you to a list of famous authors, by analyzing your sentence length, idiom, etc etc...

It serves no purpose other than fun - if you put different paragraphs from the same story in, you may well get two different authors. But who cares? It's crazy addictive

I got Stephen King, David Foster Wallace (twice), Chuck Palahuniuk (twice) and my crowning moment, Vladimir Nabakov...

Wicklowrider

cobsie wrote: »

http://iwl.me/

This is silly, but fun. Cut 'n paste a chunk of your prose into this site and have their algorithm elves match you to a list of famous authors, by analyzing your sentence length, idiom, etc etc...

It serves no purpose other than fun - if you put different paragraphs from the same story in, you may well get two different authors. But who cares? It's crazy addictive

I got Stephen King, David Foster Wallace (twice), Chuck Palahuniuk (twice) and my crowning moment, Vladimir Nabakov...

Ha - its a bit of laugh alright. Mine says James Joyce!

The Mad Hatter

I got Chuck Palahniuk a couple of times, William Gibson, Ursula K. LeGuin and Margaret Atwood.

I'm not sure about Palahniuk. I haven't read anything of his yet, but I'm a bit concerned about any writer who says he doesn't read.

Freefaller

Dan Brown when I was 22

James Joyce when I was 24 not joking

Mr E

George Orwell for me....

dawvee

I've gotten everything from Dan Brown (shudder) to Gertrude Stein. Oddly, the Gertrude Stein passage, for example, came out to Anne Rice, Mario Puzo and Stephen King when broken up into smaller pieces.

Antilles

I cut&paste a chunk of HP Lovecraft into it, and it claims that he writes like Dan Brown.

Erm...

EileenG

I put in different chunks, and got lots of different authors, but slightly more Harry Harrison than anyone else. And a chuck of Arther C Clarke and James Joyce.

I did notice that any time I put in bits from the same chapter, I always get the same writer, but different chapters could produce different authors.

Greenmachine

I entered four seperate piece of my Prose and got 4 Different authors.

James Joyce, Charles Dickins, James Fenimore Cooper, Margaret Atwood.
Never read anything by any of them. Never even heard of the second two. Would be interested in it's analysis of some of my serious writings.

Bodhisopha

Who da fuk is Ernest Hemmingway? :mad:

Greenmachine

Bodhisopha wrote: »

Who da fuk is Ernest Hemmingway? :mad:

The old man and the sea.

dawvee

Greenmachine wrote: »

Bodhisopha wrote: »

Who da fuk is Ernest Hemmingway? :mad:

The old man and the sea.

The man in the boat?

damselnat

J.D.Salinger and...David Foster Wallace? Excuse my ignorance, but I have no idea who he is...

pickarooney

damselnat wrote: »

J.D.Salinger and...David Foster Wallace? Excuse my ignorance, but I have no idea who he is...

He wrote possibly the worst book I ever tried to read - Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

damselnat

pickarooney wrote: »

He wrote possibly the worst book I ever tried to read - Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

oh no :eek:

EileenG

Come to think of it, I'm not sure being like James Joyce is good either. He may be famous, but how many of you have read one of his books all the way through?

Scuid Mhór

Freefaller wrote: »

Dan Brown when I was 22

James Joyce when I was 24 not joking

that's a jump.

Oryx

My opening paragraph for the bad romance competition reads like George Orwell, apparently.

Other than that I got Joyce, Stephen King and David Foster Wallace. I think they have a very small pool of writers they compare you to.

dawvee

EileenG wrote: »

Come to think of it, I'm not sure being like James Joyce is good either. He may be famous, but how many of you have read one of his books all the way through?

I found I got Joyce whenever I plugged in fragmentary, random bits of prose with dodgy punctuation.

nicowa

On one chapter of writing I got: H. P. Lovecraft: David Foster Wallace, Leo Tolstoy, Ray Bradbury, Anne Rice, Margaret Atwood, Margaret Mitchell, while it was considered H.P. Lovecraft overall.

On another it was Neil Gaiman. And having read lots of Neil Gaiman I could see where they were drawing the comparisons. Lots of dialogue without names (mostly descriptions of how and why they were saying it). Though I'd agree that they don't have a huge number of comparision authors...

The Mad Hatter

EileenG wrote: »

Come to think of it, I'm not sure being like James Joyce is good either. He may be famous, but how many of you have read one of his books all the way through?

It'd be cheating if I said I'm about to start reading Ulysses for the second time, but A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is one of my favourite books, and The Dead one of the best short stories I've ever read.

I don't see how it can say people write in the style of Dan Brown - he doesn't have a style. He writes the same sloppy, typo-riddled way every other airport novelist does, not a whole lot better or worse. The only difference is he claims his books are based on fact.

rgt320q

Stephanie Meyer? Geez, you make one reference to blood and the haunting of past deeds and it automatically assumes you're writing a vampire novel :P

Oryx

My last paragraph for bad romance, which by the way, is terrible, was compared to Kurt Vonnegut, whoever he is.

Antilles

nicowa wrote: »

On another it was Neil Gaiman. And having read lots of Neil Gaiman I could see where they were drawing the comparisons. Lots of dialogue without names (mostly descriptions of how and why they were saying it). Though I'd agree that they don't have a huge number of comparision authors...

Neil Gaiman posted on twitter that he had plugged a chapter from Anansi Boys into the site, and it told him he was Stephen King.

pickarooney

Anansi Boys is better than anything King ever wrote IMHO.

desolate sun

David Foster Wallace x3
James Joyce x2
Chuck Palahniuk
Ian Fleming
Kurt Vonnegut
Arthur C. Clarke
Vladimir Nabokov

I think if I had put more excerpts in, I would have gotten ALL the authors

shootie

I got David Foster Wallace too, never heard of him. Is he good/bad?

iguana

EileenG wrote: »

Come to think of it, I'm not sure being like James Joyce is good either. He may be famous, but how many of you have read one of his books all the way through?

Yeah, I got James Joyce too. I'm not sure if it's a compliment, an insult or a load of crap. I suspect crap. My first chapter is Joyce and my notes are Tolstoy.

I did once have a teacher tell me my writing style was reminiscent of J.D. Salinger, though. I'm happy enough with that.:D

cobsie

Oryx wrote: »

My last paragraph for bad romance, which by the way, is terrible, was compared to Kurt Vonnegut, whoever he is.

An American author, much beloved: wrote Slaughterhouse 5 and Breakfast of Champions amongst others.

Also wrote about writing a lot - taught writing at the prestigious Iowa Writers Workshop. Recently deceased aged 90-something.

His most famous essay on writing is How to Write With Style - you could do a lot worse!

WHU

I've done a couple of different pieces and got Dan Brown, Rudyard Kipling and Stephenie Meyer.

The Mad Hatter

cobsie wrote: »

An American author, much beloved: wrote Slaughterhouse 5 and Breakfast of Champions amongst others.

Also wrote about writing a lot - taught writing at the prestigious Iowa Writers Workshop. Recently deceased aged 90-something.

His most famous essay on writing is How to Write With Style - you could do a lot worse!

Great article, cobsie - thanks!

HalloweenJack

David Foster Wallace (never even heard of him) and Dan Brown (*shudders*).

deman

I write like

test 1 - Kurt Vonnegut
test 2 - Kurt Vonnegut

Blush_01

Oryx wrote: »

My last paragraph for bad romance, which by the way, is terrible, was compared to Kurt Vonnegut, whoever he is.

:eek:

To be honest, while that randomiser is fun, it's just that. I wouldn't take it with more than a very large pinch of salt. Everyone here seems to have got a male author as their literary alter-ego, which seems odd to me.

davesneddon

I got Cory Doctorow - anyone heard of him??!

iguana

Blush_01 wrote: »

Everyone here seems to have got a male author as their literary alter-ego, which seems odd to me.

A couple of people got Stephanie Meyer.

The Mad Hatter

davesneddon wrote: »

I got Cory Doctorow - anyone heard of him??!

He writes articles for Boing Boing and (I think) the Guardian. Didn't know he wrote fiction. Wiki.

storm2811

davesneddon wrote: »

I got Cory Doctorow - anyone heard of him??!

I just started putting in random song lyrics,put in Pokerface lyrics and got him.:pac:

Put in Nothing Else Matters lyrics and got Bram Stoker!

Blush_01

iguana wrote: »

A couple of people got Stephanie Meyer.

Yes, but only one person here got Meyer only - everyone else got Meyer and a number of men. They say that women and men have very different writing styles, which is why I find that odd.

cobsie

Blush_01 wrote: »

They say that women and men have very different writing styles, which is why I find that odd.

What is considered to be the main difference in styles between women and men? Just curious.

Blush_01

Linky

cobsie

Blush_01 wrote: »

Linky

Interesting article!

David Lodge's point was also very valid - that most fiction writers attempt to portray the mindset of the opposite sex at some point - it would be interesting to see which gender was considered more successful at that...a sort of double-blind study...there's probably a PhD student working on the algorithms as we speak

pickarooney

I tried the gender genie and for the two passages centring on a female character it guessed I was a female writer and for the two featuring more male characters it guessed I was a dude. Something not very scientific at all in that algorithm I reckon!

iguana

pickarooney wrote: »

I tried the gender genie and for the two passages centring on a female character it guessed I was a female writer and for the two featuring more male characters it guessed I was a dude. Something not very scientific at all in that algorithm I reckon!

I've just done the same experiment and got the same results. Female for a passage about a female character, male for a passage about a male character.

baltimore sun

I got James Joyce :eek::)

I've read all his stuff but didn't think he was an influence, I loved Portrait.... but couldn't stand Ulysses, I know, sorry, I'm a freak for not liking Ulysses.
anyway sure, it's only a bit of craic and if it gives some inspiration to some writers then sure why the hell not

kleefarr

I write like...

Dan Brown.

The Mad Hatter

Hm. Seems the thing might be a vanity publisher's scam. Oh well, fun while it lasted.

pickarooney

Was it? I thought it was complete rubbish while it lasted