I write Like...

[Starwulf]

So, on another forum I found a link to this site that analyzes your writing style. I ended up putting in two different posts of mine and got William Gibson & Cory Doctorow, but then I put in some of my roleplaying from here on GiTP, mainly a 5 part backstory, and got, in order: H.P. Lovecraft, David Foster Wallace, H.P. Lovecraft, Ursula K Le Guin and H.P. Lovecraft. So I guess my rping most closely resembles H.P. Lovecraft but with some variance.

Figured I'd post this here since this site has a LOT of writer types on it(as is to be expected from a a roleplaying site), I'm interested to see what results others get ^^

http://iwl.me/

[ShadowFireLance]

Anne Rice, Anne Rice, Dan Brown, Hp Lovecraft, Dan brown, Jk Rowling.

6 part backstory, and got them in that order.

Guess I'm good at Horror. :smallbiggrin:

[mistformsquirrl]

According to that site, an old short story I wrote is like Stephen King, but a more recent (unfinished) novel is closer to JRR Tolkien, and an old character biography is apparently David Foster Wallace.

So I guess "It depends" for me.

*edit*

I should add:

The Stephen King story is near-future dystopian sci-fi, focusing on clone assassins and what happens when you give a total megalomaniac all the power they could ask for.

The Tolkien story strangely enough is set in an alternate world's dieselpunk version of WWII, focusing primarily on airships and dogfighting between fighter aircraft.

The David Foster Wallace* character bio is more or less standard fantasy.

*edit 2*

And for kicks I ran an old NaNo novel through it, this time a far-future post-apocalyptic sci-fantasy story set on Mars - apparently written like Cory Doctorow. I've heard that name... don't know who it is though really. Hrm...

(This is far more entertaining than I expected ><)

*I feel bad, but I've never heard of this person before.

[Starwulf]

Anne Rice, Anne Rice, Dan Brown, Hp Lovecraft, Dan brown, Jk Rowling.

6 part backstory, and got them in that order.

Guess I'm good at Horror. :smallbiggrin:

Hehe, that JK Rowling one though is kinda odd. The end of your backstory must have been significantly different then the rest of it to warrant a JK Rowling response.

[ShadowFireLance]

Hehe, that JK Rowling one though is kinda odd. The end of your backstory must have been significantly different then the rest of it to warrant a JK Rowling response.

It's a romantic illusion...

What. I'm odd. :smallbiggrin:

[dehro]

did this before, cannot remember at all what results I got so I gave it another go.

tried a few different bits of writing, with results varying from
James Joyce (twice) to David Foster Wallace (whom I did not know :smallredface:), J.D. Sallinger, Ursula K. Le Guin and H.P. Lovecraft (also twice), Anne Rice.... and Dan Brown :smallannoyed:
.. also, Shakespeare!!!
so.. either this website doesn't know crap from Nutella and is less than accurate.. or maybe I should try and find a unique writing style/pattern.

P.S. the varied results came from submitting bits of a fantasy novel, bits of erotica and a few more random ones.
P.P.S. oddly enough, this thing seems to work also with writing in languages other than English... yet still gives results as English-language authors

[Eldan]

I threw the only long piece of writing I could find on my computer into it, a sixty page campaign setting. Apparently, it's HP Lovecraft.

[Topus]

I submitted an extract from "Misery". Apparently, Stephen King writes like Nabokov :smallbiggrin:

[Castaras]

Put in 3 different posts I made.

Came out all three times as Cory Doctorow.

*goes and looks him up*

Huh, I can live with that.

[TuggyNE]

I write forum posts like HP Lovecraft (!) or Cory Doctorow; blog posts like Chuck Palahniuk (??) or George Orwell (!) or Gertrude; and poetry like James Joyce (!!) or Gertrude Stein or, mostly, Cory Doctorow.

I am inclined to feel a little insulted. But I suppose on the whole the variety mostly just indicates my style doesn't match any of them well.

[Dihan]

I put in the first chapter of my MA dissertation and it told me I write like HP Lovecraft. I somewhat doubt this is true.

[dehro]

I submitted an extract from "Misery". Apparently, Stephen King writes like Nabokov :smallbiggrin:

cool idea.. Terry Pratchett writes like Douglas Adams.
I'd say that makes sense.

[Elemental]

Hmm... Arthur C. Clarke, Mary Shelley, George Orwell, Arthur C. Clarke, H.P. Lovecraft, James Fenimore Cooper, Mario Puzo, Ursula K. Le Guin...

Okay, dividing things into sections confuses the poor thing. Longer sections yield Arthur C. Clarke, Arthur C. Clarke, Ursula K. Le Guin, Rudyard Kipling, Ursula K. Le Guin, Arthur C. Clarke, H.G. Wells...
That's more consistent, though I doubt any significant degree of accuracy as I'm too lazy to provide a larger sample size. In any case I'm going to have to look who Ursula K. Le Guin is as her name is not known to me.

[Grinner]

cool idea.. Terry Pratchett writes like Douglas Adams.
I'd say that makes sense.

You know what might be cool? Running a bunch of different authors through this program and seeing what patterns arise.

I am curious as to how it makes these determinations, though...It's clearly not subject matter.

[Topus]

Anyway here is the proof that Dan Brown is a really poor and bad writer. I submit the longest post i wrote here and it turns out i write like him.
So he writes like a stranger who can barely write fluent and correct english ah ah ah :D

[dehro]

Anyway here is the proof that Dan Brown is a really poor and bad writer. I submit the longest post i wrote here and it turns out i write like him.
So he writes like a stranger who can barely write fluent and correct english ah ah ah :D

Half the bits of italian text I submitted also gave Dan Brown as a result

[Cristo Meyers]

I am curious as to how it makes these determinations, though...It's clearly not subject matter.

I'm betting it has something to do with a die roll and a very large table, honestly. But it's still pretty amusing.

I remember putting something in the last time this showed up here, pretty sure I got J.K Rowling for a piece of horror fiction. Maybe when I get home I'll put some of my more recent stuff through and see what it says.

[mistformsquirrl]

Well, I remember a long time ago I used a similar site that determined the 'gender' of your writing by how often you used certain words/phrases; I suspect they're using a similar thing here. (I also suspect that the whole concept is kinda bunk to be honest, fun, but bunk.)

[Grinner]

I remember putting something in the last time this showed up here, pretty sure I got J.K Rowling for a piece of horror fiction. Maybe when I get home I'll put some of my more recent stuff through and see what it says.

A young boy's whole family is murdered in cold blood, and he's sent off to live with his loathsome aunt and uncle. It turns out that he's actually a wizard by blood, and by the virtue of being a wizard, he's sent off to a boarding school riddled with death traps and a massive surveillance system magical paintings.

Whilst attending this school, he encounters several times over the now-undead sorcerer that murdered his family, and the final confrontation with this sorcerer ends with half of the people he's ever loved injured or dead.

How is this not horrific? :smalltongue:

[dehro]

on reflection, I do find it moderately amusing that the one short story in which I purposedly gave the tale an ambiguous supernatural vibe, was "recognized" as HP Lovecraft.

[Talanic]

First third or so of my first novel. Result: Douglas Adams.

Story-so-far of my second novel. Result: Arthur Clarke.

...I'll take it.

[Jormengand]

I almost consistently write like Isaac Asimov. Huh.

[Cristo Meyers]

A young boy's whole family is murdered in cold blood, and he's sent off to live with his loathsome aunt and uncle. It turns out that he's actually a wizard by blood, and by the virtue of being a wizard, he's sent off to a boarding school riddled with death traps and a massive surveillance system magical paintings.

Whilst attending this school, he encounters several times over the now-undead sorcerer that murdered his family, and the final confrontation with this sorcerer ends with half of the people he's ever loved injured or dead.

How is this not horrific? :smalltongue:

Fair enough, though mine was decidedly less child-friendly...

...actually, if the scene I put through is the one I'm thinking it was, then it was very, very much not child-friendly...well, maybe not for certain fanfic writers, but definitely for the books.

[Aedilred]

When I used the site before, I was suspicious that it seemed to derive quite a lot of its analysis from content rather than style. I put in a couple of reviews I had written of films and books and almost without exception it would peg me as a writer from the same genre as the subject of that review (for instance, a review of The Hobbit film gave me Tolkein).

Using fiction, it gave me a couple depending on the passage in question, but the most common was Joyce. Urgh.

[rs2excelsior]

Put in a near future hard sci-fi short story and got Arthur C Clarke. I take that as a compliment :smallsmile:

[TheThan]

Apparently I write like George Orwell, Arthur C Clarke, Chuck Palahniuk, Valdimir Nabokov and Mario Puzo.
Dang, some pretty heavy hitters in that list.
Anyway the breakdown:
Tragic and dramatic back-story got me George Orwell.
Sarcastic joke back-story got me Arthur C Clarke
Snarky 1st person introduction got me Chuck Palahniuk
Back-story to current character 1 got me valdimir Nabokov
Back-story to current character 2 got me Mario Puzo

You know, I'll take it.
edit
unfinished post apocalyptic sci-fi story got me Bram Stoker
huh...

[Maxios]

I copy-pasted a character biography I wrote a few months back, and it said I write like Oscar Wilde.

[Eldan]

The algorithm, however it works, is pretty stupid, sometimes. I remember that someone linked it once, on the forum, probably years ago, and we had some fun with it, then. So, here goes:


Splork, quash, mlombo, uuuuugh, uuuuugh, splish-splosh-splash, iek, iek, extra cheese.
-You write like James Joyce.


Squamous eldritch tentacles under gibbous nameless moons of noisome, accursed effulgence in these antedeluvian aeons of iredescent fungus.

H.P. Lovecraft! Who would have thought.


bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla
bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla
bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla?
bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla!
bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla
bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla
Bla.
...
Bla.

James Joyce!




Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Fusce id metus ultrices, posuere orci eu, bibendum augue. Nunc sed varius augue. Nam diam velit, ultrices vel ligula in, viverra feugiat augue. Curabitur mollis lorem vel erat sollicitudin, et dictum dolor consectetur. Suspendisse potenti. Proin viverra cursus orci eget rutrum. Curabitur venenatis ante nibh, vel interdum turpis molestie eget. Sed dapibus volutpat turpis, ut vehicula nibh malesuada in. Quisque vel vulputate mauris, et condimentum arcu. Proin hendrerit bibendum massa in tristique. Phasellus dictum, nisl in egestas ullamcorper, quam dolor pretium sem, id consectetur lorem augue in odio.

James Joyce again!


HAMLET: To be, or not to be--that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep--
No more--and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep--
To sleep--perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.

James Joyce. I think it's stuck.


This is not James Joyce. It never was and it is nothing like his style.
Robert Louis Stephenson. So I guess it isn't.

[Cuthalion]

I write like Neil Gaiman.

Who is this?

[Cristo Meyers]

I write like Neil Gaiman.

Who is this?

Neverwhere, American Gods, one of the top writers out of the UK in my opinion.
--
What I posted:

“99 voices of ghosts in my head, 99 voices of ghooosts…” I sang aloud. It got a few stares from the other people on the street, but when you look like I do most people just look the other way when you act a little odd. They tend to think you’re just a junkie and looking for your next fix.

…admittedly, a year ago they would have been right, but still. It’s handy for the times when you need to sing out loud or something to drown out the voices of ghosts in your head without people stopping you and asking “what’s wrong?” Though telling them “I have 99 voices of ghosts in my head” is its own deterrence to good Samaritans.

What? You thought I was kidding? Alright, okay, you got me: it’s actually closer to 325 or so, maybe 375. They all tend to talk at once and it’s hard to get a headcount. At least the splitting headaches have stopped. It was hard enough to hear what the voices were actually saying as it was. Feeling like someone is driving an icepick into your eye only complicates the issue. But now things are different, something’s finally changed. They’ve calmed down, stopped talking over each other, and now I can single out one from the other. Though they still just stare at me most of the time, it’s damn creepy.

All I had to do was promise to help them cross over, that’s it. It’s something I would have done anyway, taking care of the people of this neighborhood, even the ex-people, the ones that have ceased to be, is something of a career path for me, but they didn’t know that. Plus my…antics…during the more stressful and schizophrenic times probably left them with the distinct impression that I was going to let them rot. This obviously wasn’t true, but hey, appearances matter. So I got some peace and quiet, my friends got warned that there was an invisible sniper waiting on the roof (don’t ask), and I didn’t have to give up anything that wasn’t already on the table in the first place, win-win.

Well, the sniper didn’t win. He died. I didn’t know heads burst like that. But that’s another story for later and I’m sure it’s one you know all about. Hell, maybe you could fill in the blanks for me once we’re done. I kinda lost track of things after the arm-thing tried to flatten me with a set of metal shelves and the room caught fire…

…stop looking at me like that. I already told you all about that one.

Bringing this story back on track: I could finally pick out one voice from another, and at the time there was one that stood out from all the others. She’d already separated herself from the chorus line from Hell once to try and get my attention, but I was too busy chasing my own tail to do anything to help. Plus, we had bigger fish to fry at the time, she wasn’t going anywhere. Now, though, now I had time and it was time to make good on my promise. This, like just about everything else that’s happened in the past few weeks, turned out to be easier said than done.

See, the first thing I had to do was get this ghost to talk to me at all. This is already easier said than done. Most of them are pretty single-minded…and most of my personal spirit posse didn’t like me much anyway. This particular one should have been easy, they said it would be easy: just get her body out from under the building, proper burial, and everything’s kosher.

That’s when I found out that some ghosts can lie.

So we’re back to the street. I’m vocalizing my “don’t bother the crazy person” spell (complete with being horribly off-key) and heading back to where I first saw the spirit. It shouldn’t have been hard; she popped up like an annoying neighbor the last time I got near her temporary resting place. Figured she would do it again, this time maybe without the “Rook almost falling out of a moving car.”

I’d walked past where I thought the original spot was, but nothing happened. I circled the block twice, still nothing. That’s when I realized that the only voices I could hear were of people, living people. The chorus was silent, looking back they were probably watching eagerly awaiting me to slip up like a bad comedy movie, maybe whispering B-movie riffs to each other. Jerks.

I stopped singing to get a better listen. Some people have this trick where they can filter out everything except what they want to listen to, and I’m one of those lucky people. Apparently it works even if the voice only exists in your head because once I’d stopped to actually listen I could hear her, and only her, pretty clearly. She wasn’t loud, she wasn’t in my face like last time, and looking back that should have been a huge warning sign.

It sounded like she was still crying. No surprises there. I followed the trail as best I could. It wasn’t far, but it did take me through some pretty cramped and run-down parts of the neighborhood. By now I was used to having to crawl through almost-destroyed and otherwise derelict buildings, and that’s probably not a good thing.

The building her voice was coming from was not completely destroyed, just mostly. It was one of those ruins that looks like a stiff breeze could push it over, and yet it persists through storm and rain and snow, just giving the fully intact buildings around it a big, crumbly finger. The exterior walls were still standing, it was the interior that had collapsed. A couple of crows were sitting on the corner of the building, paying much more attention to each other than me. I could sympathize, I’m not very interesting.

There was no door, and the windows had either all shattered or been taken for salvage. Do they salvage glass? I don’t know…either way, no glass. One of the crows squawked as I walked by, but as usual I didn’t listen. I never do, just ask anyone.

--
“No comment.”

“Shut. Up.”
--
Her voice got louder the second I crossed through the ruined doorway. That probably should have been another warning, but I’m no expert on these things. It was definitely coming from the center of the building, right in the pile of rubble. Right where the others had said she’d be. The fact that she was standing in front of all the rubble also wasn’t a surprise: she was a ghost, I had to expect some kind of appearance.

She wasn’t crying though, at least not anymore, now she was staring at me. Well, probably more like glaring at me. Even I picked up on that warning sign. This particular ghost was not a happy camper, and I’m pretty sure I knew why. I slowly started backing away. I do know a little about ghosts, most of them can’t actually hurt you themselves.

But the stuff they can throw at you can. She chucked a piece of rubble the size of my head at…well…my head. I saw it coming and hit the deck just in time to keep it from splitting my skull. This was when she started screaming at me. It was exactly what you would expect a very angry ghost to be screaming at the object of its extreme, boiling hatred: “you left me here” and “I just wanted to rest” and “why wouldn’t you help me?” I was too busy dodging large chunks of cement and cinderblock to pay much attention.

The fact that she was really kinda right didn’t help matters. I could’ve stopped, slowed down to at least take a look, but I didn’t, and she paid the price in sanity for that delay.

--

“You really have been holding back on me…”

“Oh come on! You pay me to keep an eye on people, not give you the play by play of my misadventures!”
--
Another flying hunk of rock went right by my head and shattered on the wall behind me. I had to get out of there. She wasn’t going to listen to anything I said and there was nothing I could do at the moment to calm her down. I was running scared. But when I turned around to get the hell out of there the doorway collapsed on itself. I wasn’t getting out that way. Then came the pain.

At least it hadn’t been a rock. That probably would have crushed my back. It was a plank of wood that crashed into my shoulders. I never thought I’d be happy that I had “only” been hit in the back, but about a foot higher and it would’ve been my head. I staggered, hit the pile of rubble that at one point was my way out, and hit the floor hard. I rolled over just in time to see her right on top of me. And she was mad. And about to crush me with a huge piece of cinderblock, and I have a firm political stance against being smashed.

But she was also waiting. I wasn’t dead yet. I would be, in about five and a half seconds, but there wasn’t blind hate in her eyes anymore. Sure, the cold, calculating, “I’m going to crush your head and pulverize your ribcage” fury wasn’t any better, but it at least meant she was lucid. Or whatever passes for lucid among ghosts, anyway.

She paused to ask a single question. “Do you even know who I am?”
Lesson number one, kids: when going to exorcise a ghost, always do your research. Of course I didn’t know her name! It was supposed to be easy! Just grab the corpse and give her proper rites! 1, 2, 3! But noooooo, she had to be crazy!

Lesson number two: when facing a very angry, murderous ghost, keep your god damn mouth shut.

“Uh…Shelly?”

Wrong answer. Ghosts these days have no appreciation for the classics.

--
Vic sighed and shook her head.

“I almost get murdered by an angry ghost and a stupid movie reference is what you focus on?!”

“It’s a really bad one.”

“I thought you hadn’t seen the movie.”

“I have my ways…”

If this woman wasn’t paying my rent I swear I’d leave…
--

Rage replaced fury and she screamed loud enough that I bet the whole block heard it. I had the whole “life flashes before your eyes” thing (it was in black and white and narrated by Michael Dorn) and she prepared to send me off of the mortal coil in a matter most messy. Time slowed down, everything was in slow-mo, and I took a minute to take in what would be the last things I ever saw…and then it hit me.

No, not the rock.

I recognized this place. I really wish I didn’t, but I did. I came here to score in another life. The center rooms that collapsed in on themselves? We used to get high there. I had one chance.

“I know why you were here!” I shouted as loud as I could manage. I wasn’t expecting much. Hell, I was expecting to be dead, so when that didn’t happen immediately I figured I’d won at least a couple of seconds. She stopped, but only just. The fury was back, but I could work with that.
Good Catholic girl, wretched hive of heroin and desperation, I had to take the lead and run with it. It sure beat the alternative. I slid up against the wall to get to my feet. “You came to help the people here. The junkies, the rejects, you wanted to help them.”

No response, but I wasn’t being beaten to death with a rock. Score one for me.

“Used to see them sometimes, coming in with food, trying to get us to go to rehab...” Her eyes twitched a little when I said ”us.” I was on the right track. I rolled up my sleeves: the scars are still there. You’ve seen them. Memories of a life that I’d give anything to forget, but there’s no such thing as a former addict. She looked down at them and then back up at me. “Yeah, us. As in me. But I’m clean now, been that way for over a year, and I’ve got people like you to thank for it.”

The rock wavered in the air and I still wasn’t dead. Halftime: score 2 to 2.

“I bet you were one of the persistent ones: rain, snow, didn’t matter. I bet even the quake didn’t slow you down any. You didn’t want to give up on us. Couldn’t give up. Because if it wasn’t you, then who would do it? Everything had gone to hell after the quake. You might as well have been the last hope.”

“No one else would go…” she whispered, “no one was willing to help…” Too bad that one day the den collapsed with her inside.

“So you stepped up and did what you had to do. You probably saved some people. Maybe even me.” The chunk of rock hit the ground and smashed: goal in stoppage time, the home team wins. “Let me repay the favor. You don’t deserve this.”

“I’m sorry…” she said.

“So am I.”

She didn’t say anything more, just nodded and pointed back towards the rubble. I guess to where her body was. I spent the rest of the day digging it out. The morgue found her family, and she was buried two days later. I never did find out her name. Not that it matters because you never forget your first.


Apparently that's in the style of David Foster Wallace...a man I've never heard of and immediately had to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Foster_Wallace) the name

[Moriwen]

Two different chunks of the original fiction I'm working on give me Chuck Palahniuk (who I've never heard of). At least I'm consistent, I guess...

[Cristo Meyers]

Two different chunks of the original fiction I'm working on give me Chuck Palahniuk (who I've never heard of). At least I'm consistent, I guess...

Chuck Palahniuk wrote Fight Club.

[The_Snark]

Entered a few large chunks of text from various online games I'm playing in, just to see if there was a difference between games. Most common results were Arthur Conan Doyle and Neil Gaiman. Rudyard Kipling, Douglas Adams and Stephen King all turned up once, and Chuck Palahnuik any time I entered something written from a first-person POV.

One game apparently resembled Edgar Allen Poe, which made me laugh because in that game I'm playing a goofy parody of a gothic novel heroine.

[Remmirath]

Raymond Chandler for the story I'm working on, apparently. I'm willing to bet that it came up with this only because one of the main characters in the story has the last name of Marlowe, because I'm not seeing any similarity in style at all.

Most of my campaigns come up as H.P. Lovecraft. Miscellaneous writings seem to come up as Edgar Allen Poe or again Lovecraft, including the one essay I have on hand.

It's an amusing site, but I fear that its comparison process is rather limited.

[The Extinguisher]

I got Stephen King for the first bit of longer piece
William Gibson and Ursula K. Le Guin (I've never heard of her before, but I guess she writes fantasy stuff) for some shorter stuff
I also put in a bunch of RP stuff and got:
Cory Doctrow x 3
Dan Brown x 2
J.K. Rowling
Raymond Chandler
Neil Gaiman
George Orwell
J. D. Salinger

And when I put all of them in at once, it gave me J.K. Rowling


It's kinda all over the place, isn't it.

[factotum]

Wow, just pasted in the first page of a novel I wrote 20 years ago and it says I write like William Shakespeare--not sure if this is a good thing or not?

[Brother Oni]

Apparently I have the same style as Ian Flemming.

I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or bad.

[The Succubus]

Apparently I write like Cory Doctrow. Oo

[Creed]

I've never considered my writing as having the themes of "digital rights management, file sharing, and post-scarcity economics", but apparently this website thinks Cory Doctorow and I have a lot in common.:smalltongue:

[Manga Shoggoth]

Apparently I have the same style as Ian Flemming.

I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or bad.

He wrote the original James Bond stories, along with the original Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang (which is nothing at all like the film...). Take your pick.


I got Lewis Caroll for one of my short stories, and a mixture or Edgar Allan Poe and Dan Brown for odd chapters of the "one day I will complete the ---- thing" novel.

I'm a little offended by the Dan Brown, but I can see where the Poe was coming from...

[Giggling Ghast]

I posted some excerpts of a fanfic I wrote. I got Mary Shelley, William Shakespeare and J.K. Rowling twice.

[dehro]

I feel that this website would be more fun if it also gave as results the occasional third rate writer nobody has ever heard of...
you write like John Smith, a writer who could never quit his day job.... or something like that.

[Lentrax]

So putting some various things I have written, I got Clarke, Asimov, and Margaret Mitchell.

[Zrak]

It's really sad that multiple people in the thread have had to look up David Foster Wallace. Apparently, one of the century's most ardent cultural commentators and brilliant prose stylists is already being forgotten in favor of Dan Brown and Anne Rice.


I've never considered my writing as having the themes of "digital rights management, file sharing, and post-scarcity economics", but apparently this website thinks Cory Doctorow and I have a lot in common.:smalltongue:

It analyzes the prose style, not the themes, so that's largely irrelevant. That said, I agree that it's not terribly accurate, seeing as it found two excerpts from Of Grammatology reminiscent of H. P. Lovecraft and Ernest Hemingway, respectively. The former isn't especially egregious, but the latter indicates that whatever metric is uses is perhaps less accurate than simply taking every author to have ever been published and simply selecting one at random.

As for my own writing, I seemed to alternate between paragraphs of H. P. Lovecraft and paragraphs of David Foster Wallace (apparently, two of its preferred choices), with occasional paragraphs of Nabokov. A paragraph of James Fenimore Cooper and another of Raymond Chandler were the outliers. My poetry is similarly divided between James Joyce and Oscar Wilde, with one poem marked as Kurt Vonnegut.

[Jormengand]

It's really sad that multiple people in the thread have had to look up David Foster Wallace. Apparently, one of the century's most ardent cultural commentators and brilliant prose stylists is already being forgotten in favor of Dan Brown and Anne Rice.

In favour of who and who, now?

[Aedilred]

I'm a little offended by the Dan Brown, but I can see where the Poe was coming from...
Respected poster Manga Shoggoth was angry at being compared to the famous author.

[Lucid]

Heh, a diary style background got me pegged as Cory Doctorow, while a more lengthy background gets me Arthur C Clarke for the first part and Stephen King for the last. Interstingly the first part deals more with the characters personality, while the second is filled with words like 'undead' & 'demon'.

It also gets funny replacing short bits (apologies for the terrible prose :smalltongue:)

His footsteps echoed through the streets, tendrils of mist snaked around his legs as he walked through the shadows of foggy London.

Suddenly he heard someone cry out: "Quiet! People are trying to sleep!"comes out as Stephenie Meyer, while

His footsteps echoed through the streets, tendrils of mist snaked around his legs as he walked through the shadows of foggy London.

Suddenly he heard someone cry out: "Bugrit! Millenium hand and shrimp!"gets Stephen King as a result.

Apparently foul-mouthed beggars are what differentiates It from Twilight.:smallbiggrin:

[TuggyNE]

It's really sad that multiple people in the thread have had to look up David Foster Wallace. Apparently, one of the century's most ardent cultural commentators and brilliant prose stylists is already being forgotten in favor of Dan Brown and Anne Rice.

Some of us, myself included, have a sort of negative respect for those last two, so at least that's something.


Respected poster Manga Shoggoth was angry at being compared to the famous author.

O.o

That's … somehow disturbing in ways I cannot express.

[ngilop]

J R R Tolkien (Three Times)

Dan Brown (Twice)

James Joyce ( I have no idea who this is)

is what I got after submitting 6 samples.

Im going to look up who this James Joyce guy is right after i post this.

[Aedilred]

Dan Brown (Twice)

James Joyce ( I have no idea who this is)
...

Im going to look up who this James Joyce guy is right after i post this.
While I'm far from Joyce's biggest fan, I can't help but feel a little sad that people here have heard of Dan Brown but not him.

[5a Violista]

I put in parts from the link in my signature to Harley (a FFRPG character)'s Backstory. This is what I got:

Scene 1 (Honor): J. K. Rowling
Scene 2 (Freedom): Edgar Allan Poe
Scene 3 (Betrayal): Dan Brown
Scene 4 (Lies): Dan Brown
Scene 5 (Change): George Orwell
Scene 6 (Fallen): Kurt Vonnegut
Scene 7 (Pain): J. R. R. Tolkien

Pretty varied, but it doubles Dan Brown, so...coincidence?

Then, I put them all in in the order which I wrote it, (1234567) and I got: Edgar Allan Poe
Then, I put it in chronological in-text order (7423156), and I got: Dan Brown

So...is this enough info to come to a conclusion about this? No, not really; not yet.

So I put them in written order vs chronological, split into "positive titles" (125) and "negative titles" (3467):
Written order Positive: Edgar Allan Poe
Written order Negative: Dan Brown
Chronological Positive: Edgar Allan Poe
Chronological Negative: Dan Brown

That's an interesting trend, but can I show anything else?

I put them in paired groups that were written to fit together, ordered both directions:
Change-Fallen: George Orwell, just like Scene 5 Change alone
Fallen-Change: George Orwell
Honor-Lies: J. K. Rowling, just like Scene 1 Honor alone
Lies-Honor: J. K. Rowling
Freedom-Betrayal: Dan Brown, just like Scene 3 Betrayal alone
Betrayal-Freedom: Dan Brown
So reversing the order of those two didn't make any difference. But it showed me that I write more like Dan Brown than Edgar Allan Poe.

So, then, to do some comparisons, I put in large sections of my IC writing about Harley:
First, while she's on a fancy-restaurant date with a cyborg: Jane Austen
Second, sucked into a far-off hopeless alternate universe in a deadly swamp and doesn't speak the language and she meets someone called ???: Jane Austen
Third, while she's waiting for Santa Claus while disguising her identity: Jane Austen
Earlier, she returns to the Evil Association (while still an Evil Intern) and convinces a lecherous flower to have a wage a waterballoon war on the Good League of Good: Jane Austen
This entire post so far just sure it's not stuck: H. P. Lovecraft: Okay, not stuck on Jane Austen.
Fifth, when she suddenly gets promoted from the position of Evil Intern to the de-facto leader of said organization of pure evil: Jane Austen
Then, when she sneaks into the heroes' base, after two of the organization's members are captured: Jane Austen

I'm going out on a limb here and saying that the remainder of them will also reveal to be "Jane Austen". However, just to check:
Later, she breaks out of the heroes' prison after she was captured: Jane Austen
Eighth, when she returns to the Association of Malicious, Evil, and Nefarious and takes command after the base was almost destroyed by the heroes: Jane Austen
Finally, when she helps fight off a zombie infestation of said base, and then talks to a vampire shapeshifter, just before the date with the cyborg and just after quasi-indirectly helping the cyborg rescue a prisoner from her organization: Bram Stoker



Conclusion:
I write backstories like Dan Brown, with a pinch of Edgar Allan Poe.
I write IC text for this character like Jane Austen.

[GoblinArchmage]

I inputted the first eighteen lines of the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales (in the original Middle English, of course). Apparently Chaucer writes like Shakespeare. I'm not sure how to feel about this.

[Togath]

I put in a backstory(in a diary style) that I wrote recently-ish for a character of mine and got.. Vladimir Nabokov =3
Putting in other(mainly shorter) back stories gives out "James Fenimore Cooper" as the result.. whoever he is?:smallconfused:
While putting in the fluff for my main campaign setting returned Arthur C. Clarke :smallsmile:

[TuggyNE]

I inputted the first eighteen lines of the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales (in the original Middle English, of course). Apparently Chaucer writes like Shakespeare. I'm not sure how to feel about this.

What would be great is if someone could scrounge up a bit of Shakespearean writing that writes like Chaucer.

[dehro]

While I'm far from Joyce's biggest fan, I can't help but feel a little sad that people here have heard of Dan Brown but not him.

Uhm... Sarcasm maybe?

[Zrak]

I put in a backstory(in a diary style) that I wrote recently-ish for a character of mine and got.. Vladimir Nabokov =3
Putting in other(mainly shorter) back stories gives out "James Fenimore Cooper" as the result.. whoever he is?:smallconfused:
While putting in the fluff for my main campaign setting returned Arthur C. Clarke :smallsmile:

He's the Last of the Mohicans guy. He wrote other stuff, but it's all basically Last of the Mohicans.

[Brother Oni]

He wrote the original James Bond stories, along with the original Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang (which is nothing at all like the film...). Take your pick.

I know who Ian Flemming is, I just don't know whether it's a good or bad thing as apparently his Bond books, while being thoroughly riveting reads, were products of their time and hence would be considered fairly misogynistic by today's standards.

I say apparently as I've never read one and am going by reviews. I think I'll try and pick one up and see if it's actually true.

[Aedilred]

I know who Ian Flemming is, I just don't know whether it's a good or bad thing as apparently his Bond books, while being thoroughly riveting reads, were products of their time and hence would be considered fairly misogynistic by today's standards.

I say apparently as I've never read one and am going by reviews. I think I'll try and pick one up and see if it's actually true.
Given that the style detector doesn't seem all that sophisticated, I doubt if it's going to pick up "misogynistic overtones" and categorise on that basis. It's supposed to be based on style, I gather, so while Fleming isn't the most "literary" of authors he does have an engaging style.

Thing is, of course, I imagine most of the authors in the database are pretty good (published authors tend to be better than unpublished ones, renowned ones moreso) so it's likely that the results will flatter anyone. Unless you get Dan Brown or Stephanie Meyer, I suppose.


Uhm... Sarcasm maybe?
It's the only explanation I can think of that doesn't make me despair, but the post didn't give me that impression.

[Zrak]

I got James Fenimore Cooper without just typing the phrase "noble savage" over and over, so I'm pretty sure it doesn't really judge based on thematic content so much as prose style.

[Miriel]

I copy pasted a long bit from Othello, and it said it was in the style of William Shakespeare. I did the same with "A Modest Proposal", and it was the style of Jonathan Swift, then with The Lord of the Rings, in the style of J.R.R. Tolkien.

So far, so good.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

I write like Neil Gaiman.

Who is this?

Same! I submitted the prologue to my novel and got him as well!

He wrote "Star Dust" if that helps?

[Togath]

He's the Last of the Mohicans guy. He wrote other stuff, but it's all basically Last of the Mohicans.

What is that book like?(I've never heard of it, to be honest)

[Zrak]

His prose style is mostly criticized for being unnecessarily wordy, most famously by Mark Twain. He was very popular in his day and remains fairly widely read, as far as I know, though probably more for historical context than necessarily for his writing. Generally, he's one of the names on there I would not (and did not) take flatteringly.

[Ridureyu]

After putting in the rough draft of a novel I wrote last month... I got William Gibson!

[Castaras]

Those of you who got Neil Gaiman and don't know who he is should definitely look up his stuff. He's a bloody good sci-fi/fantasy writer, both book-wise and tv series-wise. I'd highly recommend Neverwhere the TV series, Stardust (both book and film) and the Sandman comics.

He's quite a prominent literary figure here in Britain.

[Mauve Shirt]

Evidently my term paper about smartphones makes me sound like Cory Doctorow. :smalltongue:

[Zrak]

A keyword sensor is probably a fairly significant part of the algorithm. Entering the phrase "At the end of the street, I saw . . ." with different objects provides different authors; "a vampire" gives Stephanie Meyer; "a dragon," Ursula K. Le Guin; "some amphetamines," Chuck Palahniuk (my money would've been on Gibson); and "a soldier," Ernest Hemingway.

[Togath]

And adding "a hobbit" gives Tolkien =3

[SarahV]

I tried some excerpts from my music blog.

Most recent post about a bunch of different bands = HP Lovecraft (perhaps ironic because I've always heard he was anti-Semitic and I mentioned Chanukah/Judaism in that post as an aside...)

Post about Abraxas, heavy avant jazz band with rock/metal influence: Vladimir Nabokov

Post about Preservation Hall Jazz Band, which is New Orleans style jazz: David Foster Wallace

Post about Marc Ribot Trio at the Village Vanguard (free jazz): David Foster Wallace (ETA: That's the guitarist in my avatar, btw... :smallbiggrin: )

Post about some Halloween-related shows I went to with a bunch of local bands: Cory Doctorow

Post about three jazz musicians including Matana Roberts, just 'cause I tweeted with her today: HP Lovecraft

Post that I picked because it's both the longest and most popular one I've written... about a mostly-classical John Zorn marathon at the Met: David Foster Wallace

Not really seeing a pattern! But fun. :smallsmile:

[Bickerstaff]

First two paragraphs of a short-story I'm working on: J.R.R. Tolkein.

First character backstory for a D&D character: James Fenimore Cooper

Second character backstory for a D&D character: Mario Puzo

Third character backstory: Vladimir Nabokov

Last character backstory: Cory Doctorow



Alright ... I guess?

[Brother Oni]

Those of you who got Neil Gaiman and don't know who he is should definitely look up his stuff. He's a bloody good sci-fi/fantasy writer, both book-wise and tv series-wise. I'd highly recommend Neverwhere the TV series, Stardust (both book and film) and the Sandman comics.

He's quite a prominent literary figure here in Britain.

American Gods and Good Omens (with Terry Pratchett) are other novels he's famous for.

[Castaras]

American Gods and Good Omens (with Terry Pratchett) are other novels he's famous for.

Still need to read both of these, which is why I recommended ones I have partaken of. :smallsmile:

[Brother Oni]

Still need to read both of these, which is why I recommended ones I have partaken of. :smallsmile:

You get more out of American Gods if you have a cursory knowledge of major mythologies and pop culture, but Good Omens has no such barriers and you should go read it right now. :smallbiggrin:

Out of curiosity, what sci-fi has he written? About the furthest away from his usual material I can think of is the English translation of Mononoke Hime and even that's fantasy inspired.

[Somensjev]

the sentence "my name is _______ ____, i have a bad habit of going completely off track, not remembering what i was saying, and just generally annoying people"

gets the result of Leo Tolstoy

[Eldan]

You get more out of American Gods if you have a cursory knowledge of major mythologies and pop culture, but Good Omens has no such barriers and you should go read it right now. :smallbiggrin:

Out of curiosity, what sci-fi has he written? About the furthest away from his usual material I can think of is the English translation of Mononoke Hime and even that's fantasy inspired.

He has written two collections of quite excellent short stories and poems, Smoke and Mirrors and Fragile Things. While mostly fantasy, there's also a fair amount of horror in there and a few that move more towards SciFi.

Including one interesting story that was based on a very, very early script draft for The Matrix, after the Wachowskies showed it to him.

[Manga Shoggoth]

I know who Ian Flemming is, I just don't know whether it's a good or bad thing as apparently his Bond books, while being thoroughly riveting reads, were products of their time and hence would be considered fairly misogynistic by today's standards.

I say apparently as I've never read one and am going by reviews. I think I'll try and pick one up and see if it's actually true.

That wasn't the point I intended to make - it's just that everyone knows about the James Bond books via the films, but very few people remember that he wrote other stuff (made into films) as well.

I would warn you that the James Bond books - at least the ones I have read - are not much like the films either. The films are more adventure stories with a little humour thrown in, the books are straight spy stories with very little humour.

(Caveat: I've not seen the more recent films, which may play it more straight)

[Proud Tortoise]

I write like HP Lovecraft.

☼u☼

[Armaius]

Stephen King and James Joyce.

Neither of whom I'm all that fond of.:smallsigh:

[Tridax]

I've got Stephen King on my campaign story, JK Rowling on the magic explanation and Dan Brown on the noble houses lore.

I'm genuinely interested at how does the site analyse the text and compare it to the author's writing style.

[TuggyNE]

I'm genuinely interested at how does the site analyse the text and compare it to the author's writing style.

It's magic proprietary algorithms, I don't gotta 'splain it. :smalltongue:

[Tridax]

It's magic proprietary algorithms, I don't gotta 'splain it. :smalltongue:

Well, it just turned out that Stephen King writes like JD Salinger. :smallsmile:

[Dragonwriter713]

Cool I write like J .K . Rowling and Ursula K. Le Guin. That ups my confidence since Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was the first fantasy novel I ever read when I was six.

[le Suisse]

My intentionaly horribly written fanfic (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9152562/1/A-GAME-OF-THRONEL-NEW-BEGINNING) got me "James Joyce"...

[NotScaryBats]

Four different stories, from 30 pages to 3, got Cory Doctorow, Steven King, James Joyce, and Arthur Clarke. I guess I don't have a consistent style?

[Aotrs Commander]

Creature description from my bestiary - Vladimir Nabokov (?)

Background for a PC (written as DM for the player, so in second person) - J K Rowling

Entire text of my MLP fanfic - Dan Brown

Parody of Aragorn's poem - James Joyce (?)

Entire text of "History of the Dark Wars" campaign world background - Arthur Clarke (Arthur C Clarke?)

Entire text of my Naruto parody fanfic - David Foster Wallace (?)

Entire text of most recent quest - Cory Doctorow (?)

Most recent Manouvre Group Scenario (Aotrs verses ESU) - Arthur Clarke

Random Accelerate & Attack Scenario (with profiles) - Dan Brown

Same Accelerate & Attack Scenario (text brief only) - Arthur Clarke

Contents of randomly googled ponythread post - William Gibson (?)



Some consistency, eventually, but apparently I have an electic writing style that is mostly like people I've never heard of.

Yeah, not especially crediting a great deal of coherency to that test...

[Kislath]

I put in an entire short story I wrote, and got only one result--
Mario Puzo.

Sweet! I'll take that. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to write a new Godfather sequel.

EDIT: I tried again, this time with nice rant I made on a politics & news forum, and got--
Issac Asimov.

I guess I must sound smarter when arguing with internet idiots.

[noparlpf]

Based on two paragraphs of a short story I forgot to write two years ago, I got HG Wells. Other than that I don't have any extant writing samples.

[EmeraldRose]

1st- A recent RP post from Fears: James Joyce
2nd- An exerpt of a Family of Origin paper from last term: Cory Doctorow (must google)
3rd- An excerpt from an Essential Theory paper from last term: David Foster Wallace
4th- More RP from Fears: James Joyce again
5th- This post: HP Lovecraft

Heh...