# I Write Like...



## Ghost (Jun 13, 2012)

Here's a website called I Write Like. It compares your writing style and word choice to famous authors. Now, I know I don't write like Vladimir Nabokov and James Joyce, but the idea is encouraging even if it's inaccurate. The results vary more widely if you enter smaller chunks of text, so I'd recommend using larger sections of writing. I thought we could post results for fun.

I entered all of my short stories there and got the following: Ernest Hemingway (x2), Jonathan Swift, JRR Tolkien, Dan Brown, Ursula K. Le Guin, Stephenie Meyer, Neil Gaiman, and Mario Puzo. I'd be happy if I was half as good as some of these folks, but they very different from each other. I'm curious who I'd get if I wrote a novel.

For my long poems, I got these people more than once: David Foster Wallace, Arthur C. Clarke, Chuck Palahniuk, Margaret Atwood, and HP Lovecraft.

I haven't read half of these authors, but I'm definitely adding them to my reading list.

What results do you get?


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## Elder the Dwarf (Jun 13, 2012)

5 Anne Rice (funny, never read her work) 1 Tolkien (love him, would never compare our writing though) and 1 Shakespeare (Can't imagine where they got that one)

I wonder how they judge it.


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## Philip Overby (Jun 13, 2012)

I got Jane Austen and HP Lovecraft.  If you've read anything I've written, this is hilarious.


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## Ankari (Jun 13, 2012)

I got JRR Tolkien.  I'll take his fame, not his writing style


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## Kelise (Jun 13, 2012)

That IS hilarious, Phil.

I wouldn't really trust that site. I did one chapter of my work there one week, then did the exact same chapter again a week later,  and got different results. First time I got Ernest Hemingway, then HP Lovecraft. 

Having read their work, I honestly can't see how the site worked that one out - especially when it gave different results to the same chapter.


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## Ghost (Jun 13, 2012)

Yeah, I think it's for fun. I did a small section of a story and got Leo Tolstoy but with a longer section I got Hemingway. I also got one James Fenimore Cooper. 

This website is like a literary version of the Magic 8-Ball.


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## ProfessorBrainfever (Jun 13, 2012)

Oh, I got Anne Rice followed by Neil Gaiman. Not bad morale booster, if I do say so myself.


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## Chime85 (Jun 13, 2012)

I got two different results. Using a 700 word sample I got George Orwell. Using a 7,700 word sample (which included the first sample) I got J.R.R.Tolkien. I'm happy with both results.


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## Jabrosky (Jun 13, 2012)

I entered in the first chapter of my _Bride of Perseus_ story and got Rudyard Kipling. In one sense it's ironic, given that he was a racist advocate for European imperialism whereas my stories feature a lot of non-white protagonists, but on the other hand it seems appropriate given that we both write stories with "exotic" settings.

Then again, looking at an excerpt from _The Jungle Book_, I don't see any special resemblance between his prose and my own beyond the setting. I wish the program would break down exactly what similarities it perceives between your writing and whatever author it likens you to.


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## Telcontar (Jun 13, 2012)

Judging purely from the range given to writers who've posted above, I'd say that their algorithms are sloppy at best and really more like a random choice at worst... kinda disappointing. It's a really interesting idea, but would take some serious research to make the comparisons mean anything.


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## The Blue Lotus (Jun 14, 2012)

Well I know the site is bubkiss but... 
I could not resist, I did it any how.
This is what I got :
William Shakespeare

Cool, if it were anywhere near true it would be even cooler!


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## Reaver (Jun 19, 2012)

It told me what I already know. I write like me.


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## The Blue Lotus (Jun 21, 2012)

Reaver said:


> It told me what I already know. I write like me.


LOL If only we could all be so lucky


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## Lawfire (Jun 24, 2012)

I posted ten paragraphs of _lorem ipsum_ filler text and got James Joyce...


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## Ghost (Jun 24, 2012)

Funny, Lawfire. _Atlanta Nights_ got William Gibson. Unfortunately, I've never heard of the guy, so I don't know if that's funny or not.

The Declaration of Independence got H.P. Lovecraft.


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## Steerpike (Jun 24, 2012)

Ghost said:


> Funny, Lawfire. _Atlanta Nights_ got William Gibson. Unfortunately, I've never heard of the guy, so I don't know if that's funny or not.
> 
> The Declaration of Independence got H.P. Lovecraft.



Gibson is great. I'm surprised you haven't heard of him, even if you don't read that genre. Probably one of the most influential genre writers around today. _Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive_, and so on. Those titles don't ring a bell? A lot of underpinning for the move _The Matrix_ in those.


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## lawrence (Jun 24, 2012)

Sorry...but I agree with Telcontar, this site has some pretty lame software doing the 'appraisal'. That much seems obvious. Don't get too excited or disappointed by your results, they are virtually worthless. 

*shakes out last few drops of cold water from bucket*


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## Benjamin Clayborne (Jun 24, 2012)

Based on one chapter of my NIP, I write like James Joyce. Now I have to go read some James Joyce and see if that sounds plausible


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## Ireth (Jun 24, 2012)

Five tries with five different works:

Neil Gaiman
Dan Brown (x2)
Anne Rice
James Joyce

Interesting selection, I must say.


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## Ghost (Jun 24, 2012)

lawrence said:


> Sorry...but I agree with Telcontar, this site has some pretty lame software doing the 'appraisal'. That much seems obvious. Don't get too excited or disappointed by your results, they are virtually worthless.



Relax, guys. It's just for fun. I very much doubt anyone believes Martin Luther King Jr. was channeling Edgar Allan Poe when he wrote his I Have a Dream speech.


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## lawrence (Jun 24, 2012)

ha nice, Ghost! I knew that!  

James Joyce wrote Ulysses I think, I've not read it but it is a landmark book in the English language, many believe. Think I'll check him out, too.


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## Agran Velion (Jun 24, 2012)

Agatha Christie
Neil Gaiman 
William Shakespeare 

It is bad my crude blogpost that basically parodies "Football, beer, babes!" got William Shakespeare? 


I know that the Algorithim isn't trustworthy, but it is a good confidence booster.


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## Anders Ã„mting (Jun 24, 2012)

*randomly inputs some old fanfiction*

_You write like Dan Brown!_

Okay...

*inputs a chapter of my Harry Potter fanfic, in which I deliberately tried to emulate JK Rowling*

_You write like JK Rowling!_

Aha! Success!

*inputs what little I've written on my actual novel, which is all in Swedish but whatever, let's try it*

_You write like James Fenimore Cooper!_

Er... Yay?


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## Steerpike (Jun 25, 2012)

lawrence said:


> ha nice, Ghost! I knew that!
> 
> James Joyce wrote Ulysses I think, I've not read it but it is a landmark book in the English language, many believe. Think I'll check him out, too.



Ulysses is pretty interesting, but not an easy read. I've heard "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" is harder to get through, but I don't know. I think Ulysses is worth a read by any writer.

EDIT: Scratch Portrait of the Artist. I was thinking of Finnegan's Wake. That's the harder one.


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## King Raven Stark (Jun 25, 2012)

I got Arthur Conan Doyle, I'm have to check him out.


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## Steerpike (Jun 25, 2012)

King Raven Stark said:


> I got Arthur Conan Doyle, I'm have to check him out.



The Sherlock Holmes stories are very good


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## Anders Ã„mting (Jun 25, 2012)

Posted: "Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne! If you only knew the power of the Dark Side!"  

It gave me Dan Brown.

...Yeah, this seems legit.

I also put the opening crawls from all six Star Wars movies in there. Turns out they are written in the style of... Douglas Adams.

Comes on now, _that _is hilarious.


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## Martinus (Jul 2, 2012)

This sort of thing is all in good fun, but really can't be taken seriously.

I input the first chapters of each of my published books and got the following results:

Virtual Wiles: Arthur Clarke 
Prisoner of Time: Robert Louis Stevenson
The Rogue Investigations: Neil Gaiman
The Guns of Mars: Cory Doctorow
West of the Warlock: J.R.R. Tolkien


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## They'reWatchingUs (Jul 7, 2012)

I got the guy who wrote Dracula, which actually fit with what I put in  Bram Stoker 
Someone put in an exract of JRR Tolkien's work and see who it come up with :bomb:


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## They'reWatchingUs (Jul 7, 2012)

Extract from chapter two in the twin towers came out with him... let me see if less will ruin it...


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## They'reWatchingUs (Jul 7, 2012)

It came out with Athur Conan Doyle for a smaller, yet almost as long, extract! lol
Defenetly don't trust this websites opinion xD


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## Noc (Jul 8, 2012)

I would assume this uses a markov chain to work?


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## They'reWatchingUs (Jul 9, 2012)

It does appear to do so.


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## Weaver (Oct 11, 2012)

A thorough look at what the "I Write Like" site's writing-analysis thingamajig said about one author's work:

North of Andover: I Write Like... Myself!

The basic conclusion is what everyone else has been saying - this thing may be good for laughs (or not) - but it is definitely not to be taken seriously.


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## Guru Coyote (Oct 12, 2012)

Well yeah, this site has definitively given mw a good hour of entertainment. As to how it works - or fails to - a long time back I wrote a small piece of JavaScript that did something similar:
Traumwind - Do I write like a Pro?
What this does is compare left and right for same word usage. If I had replaced the left pane with a batch of original works by famous authors... you get the picture.

Here are my results from the site we all love:
The first two of these you can read in the Showcase section, to see how 'accurate' the results are ^^
Carl Charonson 
first scene: Steven King
second scene: Chuck Palahniuk

One man, a half can of tuna, a shotgun and some animal in a bag: Chuck Palahniuk

Some longer works I'm working on 
The Journeyman Rainmaker, fantasy short story with minimal magic
at the well: Neil Gaiman
ritual scene: Anne Rice
full text: Neil Gaiman

Princess Rebecca (Space Opera): H. P. Lovecraft
The Angel Angle (dark SF): Isaac Asimov

So yeah, morale booster is the right word.


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## CupofJoe (Oct 12, 2012)

With the only piece I have with me I apparently write like Neil Gaiman. I've just started reading NG so things could be a lot worse...


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