Great Time Waster

Anything goes.... but SPAM :)

Moderators: Celeste Stewart, Ed, Constant

Locked
Amy W
Posts: 184
Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2008 3:39 pm

Great Time Waster

Post by Amy W »

If anyone wants to procrastinate just a little bit longer, I found a great site - I'm kind of addicted to it. It's called I Write Like, at iwl.me, and it tells you which famous author you write like. It's probably not at all accurate, but it's fun to think that I write in a style similar to a famous successful author. So far, I write fiction like Chuck Palahniuk, Kurt Vonnegut, and Stephen King - I guess I don't write like a woman? For non-fiction, I keep getting David Foster Wallace, no matter how many samples I try. Odd, since I've never been a big fan of Wallace :?
Elizabeth Ann West
Posts: 561
Joined: Tue Nov 13, 2007 4:42 am
Location: Moncks Corner, SC
Contact:

Re: Great Time Waster

Post by Elizabeth Ann West »

This is interesting.

The piece I am writing that is Chick Lit from the male point of view? Mario Puzo, the guy who wrote the Godfather books that the movies are based on. That's promising, guess I did capture a male voice :)

The Christian fiction piece I'm writing with a female voice? I write like Stephenie Meyer.

Nice to know I'm adequately schizophrenic in my writing styles.
Debbi
Posts: 738
Joined: Tue Jul 14, 2009 10:58 am
Location: New Mexico

Re: Great Time Waster

Post by Debbi »

Haha! Apparently I write like Stephen King no matter what I'm doing. I tried one of my business articles, a chapter from my YA fantasy novel, and some paragrpahs from my middle grade book. All came up Stephen King. I do love King and I wouldn't mind having his millions, but really? Maybe the analyzer has a random generator and I hit three SKs in a row. Should I go to the casino?
Amy W
Posts: 184
Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2008 3:39 pm

Re: Great Time Waster

Post by Amy W »

Yeah, I'd love to know how the site comes up with the authors. No matter what non-fiction sample I give them, they keep giving David Foster Wallace right back to me. But for my fiction, I get a different author every time. It's probably based on how long the sentences are or something.

But I like to be delusional about my writing, so I'll believe the site when it tells me I write like Leo Tolstoy and Margaret Mitchell. I'll just sit right here and wait for my Pulitzer :lol:
Celeste Stewart
Posts: 3528
Joined: Sun Jan 08, 2006 5:28 pm
Location: California
Contact:

Re: Great Time Waster

Post by Celeste Stewart »

Don't take it too seriously. I submitted a bunch of unorganized notes and found that I apparently write like the aforementioned David Foster Wallace. Next, I submitted an assignment from a client that listed only the article's suggested title (on a dull subject), keywords (again pretty mundane stuff), and targeted URLs. Imagine my surprise to discover that my client is the next Dan Brown!

Just for fun, I posted the paragraph above and - guess what? Those three lines are also DanBrowneseque! Ahh, the talent flowing from our collective fingers to the keyboards. . .

The above sentence? Harry Harrison (whoever that is - oh sci-fi guy according to a quick search. No wonder. Don't tell my husband of my ignorance). Debbi's last post? James Joyce!

The above sentences? Guess who? David Foster Wallace once again.

This entire post as of now? You guessed it: Dan Brown. BTW: Loved Angels and Demons; enjoyed The Da Vinci Code.
Amy W
Posts: 184
Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2008 3:39 pm

Re: Great Time Waster

Post by Amy W »

Just read an article about the site, and as it turns out, the author you write like is determined by word choice and sentence length. There are only 50 authors in the database, but the owner plans to expand it. I think the whole thing is hilarious. Apparently, if you enter in the words to Lady Gaga's Alejandro, it says she writes like Shakespeare - I never knew "I'm not your babe" was so profound!
4rumid
Posts: 264
Joined: Thu Sep 10, 2009 5:22 pm

Re: Great Time Waster

Post by 4rumid »

Amy, that's hysterical!
Locked