I plugged a chunk of my novel-in-progress into this web app that analyzes your sentence structure and word choices, and I got this:
Margaret Atwood
I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!
Loved Handmaid’s Tale, but Cat’s Eye left me cold. Tried to read Good Bones and Simple Murders, but I don’t generally like short stories (it was a gift from someone who does like them). Can’t remember what others I’ve read, but I know I’ve at least started one or two more. I’ve always wondered why she’s so popular. My general impression of her is that she’s kind of a “John Irving lite.” But maybe I’ll have to revisit her stuff now that I’m older and wiser and see what the fuss is about. Any recommendations?
Then I plugged in an everyday splendor post and got this:
Oscar Wilde
I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!
Now that felt good. If only! Even though he could be a bit pompous and verbose. (Wait a minute… This app is good!)
Then I plugged in a frogblog post and got this:
Stephen King
I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!
Oh well. But who doesn’t love some good pulp from time to time?
Let me know who you write like!
Well, I tried one blog entry – HP Lovecraft. Hmm, I thought, not quite the effect I was aiming for. Never mind, try another – Dan Brown – Oh no, I’m ruined, I thought, I am doomed to become rich from my writing beyond the dreams of avarice. In desperation I tried a chapter from my novel. BINGO – You write like James Joyce, says the wise computer, and who am I to argue!
Hi David.
Having read David Horton and James Joyce and Dan Brown (and H.P. Lovecraft, but not in decades, and since I was blissfully consuming mass quantities of Hawaiian pot during my youthful sci-fi phase I can’t seem to recall thing one about his writing style…), I say the Joyce/Horton assessment is quite accurate.
Somebody plugged in some Nabokov and evidently he writes like Stephen King… https://twitter.com/greatdismal/status/18556316521
I enjoyed the comments on this BoingBoing article “Chances are you write like Dan Brown”: http://www.boingboing.net/2010/07/15/chances-are-you-writ.html
This was a welcome little diversion. We all need it from time to time! Thanks for playing. :-)