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I write Like

There is a website out there that analyzes your writing style and compares them to other authors. For fun I tried several chapters of varying lengths and characters and did one test of half a book I have written. My results? Dan Brown, Chuck Palahniuck, JK Rowling, and Urusla K. LeGuin. Looks like I'm in some good company (though I have never heard of Chuck before). I take this with a grain of salt, however, since my results were different every time. I wonder if my books got entered in their entirety who I would get...

Anyways, just a fun little thing you might want to try out. Kinda like those buzzfeed quizzes.
 

T.Allen.Smith

Staff
Moderator
H.G. Wells, Nabokov, Chuck Palahniuck, Cory Doctorow.

Observations:
When Nabokov came up, the POV is a young girl.

When Palahniuck showed, it was a combat scene (with the word fist in it, I might add).

H.G. Wells came from a long line of description.

Doctorow was a young boy learning to fight and getting his rear handed to him.

That may mean this focuses on key words and subject matter more than style.
 
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Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Just put up the Gettysburg address into the software. Apparently Honest Abe is Lovecraftian in his most famous speech.
 
David Foster Wallace, H.P Lovecraft, Dan Brown, James Joyce, Issac Asimov

Quite an eclectic bunch in my opinion. I put in two excerpts from my main wip which brought up David Foster Wallace and James Joyce. The scenes I put in had a post-war celebration with people dancing and making fun of the army and country they had just defeated (David Foster Wallace); and a man reflecting on his life and the journeys he had survived as he held his new born son for the first time (James Joyce).

The last three authors came from three excerpts I put in from my side project. All three scenes cam from the beginning, climax and end of the "main characters" trek through a valley where a war was taking place. The beginning got Dan Brown, the middle scene got Issac Asimov and the last section got H.P Lovecraft.

If this website did nothing else it forced me to read over some of my work just to see how it came to it's decisions.
 
Cory Doctorow, Chuck Palahniuk, and James Joyce.

I've ever only heard of James Joyce, and at that I've never read any of his work. But from what I hear Joyce is wonderful so I guess that's not a bad thing. I should get to work on reading then.

EDIT:
I do actually know Chuck Palahniuk, but again I have not read any of his work.
 

WooHooMan

Auror
H.P. Lovecraft for a location/atmosphere excerpt, Stephen King for a third-person narration and Mary Shelley for a first-person narration.
Strangely enough, I've never written a straight horror story.
 
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Caged Maiden

Staff
Article Team
Neil Gaiman for Untitled book 1 (about a magic student practicing an outlawed art)

Stephen King for Untitled Book 2 (about dwarves reclaiming an underground city)

J. D. Salinger
for The Silk Scarf (about a paladin who hunts undead and falls in love with a blind priestess)

Harry Harrison for The Satin Dress (about a werewolf who is thrown in jail for murder)

Cory Doctorow
for Sayan Soul (about werewolves and dragons)

J. K. Rowling for Dragon's Blood (about magic and mercenaries...and werewolves and dragons)

Ursula K. Le Guin for Spirit's Shadow (about the same werewolves and dragons)

H. P. Lovecraft for Warrior's Heart (about more werewolves and their problems with dragons)

James Joyce for Written in Red (which I compare to Borgias)

William Gibson for Anamnesis (my zombie story)

Lewis Carroll for The Mythic World Project (a Steampunk collaborative world project)

J. R. R. Tolkien for Wolf Clan (a graphic novel about an outcast's journey to find himself)

Arthur Conan Doyle for Aunt Maggie's House (a light-hearted romance in 1810 England)

How is this even possible that none of these examples got the same result? I'm inclined to try my shorts and see what comes up.

Very interesting, and loads of fun. I know we had this thread a while ago...wonder whether my results were the same a couple years ago.
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
I seem to remember going through this once before. Anyhow:

Labyrinth: Journal - Chapter 1 (Botched kidnapping and flight in a decadent city) - James Joyce

LAbyrinth: Journal - Chapter 6 (Nightmare and frustration on a river journey) - Shakespeare

Labyrinth: Journal - Chapter 12 (Entry into a mysterious city at the heart of a labyrinth) - Lovecraft

Labyrinth: Journal - Chapter 18 (Captives/Guests of an unstable chieftain in an anarchic city) - Arthur C Clark

All Chapters by the same POV character.

Empire: Country - Chapter 2 (Aftermath and confrontation after a massacre - POV = Peter, a knight) - Kurt Vonnegut

Empire: Country - Chapter 5 (Entry to a crukbling country castle - POV = Tia, Merchants daughter) - Lewis Carroll

Empire: Country - Chapter 6 (Servitor preparing for the day - POV = Kyle, a peasant turned mage) - Kurt Vonnegut

Empire: Country - Chapter 8 (Meeting with an arrogant lord, 2nd meeting with an artisan - POV = Tia) - Lewis Carroll

Empire: Country - Chapter 11 (Heading out to take in the show...with a dark twist - POV = Peter) - Neil Gaines

Empire: Country - Chapter 16 (A youth escapes a predator pack and discovers innate magic - POV = Li Pang) - Rudyard Kipling

Empire: Country is in the 2nd draft stage.

Empire: Capital - Chapter 1 (Practice hand to hand combat, jog around city, unwanted mail attention - POV = Tia) - Dave Foster Wallace

Empire: Capital - Chapter 6 (Descent to a prison cell, conversation with prisoner - POV = Peter) - Chuck Palahuik

Empire: Capital - Chapter 12 (First part of an imperial ball, court gossip, dances - POV = Tia) - Lovecraft

Empire: Capital is in raw first draft stage.

Falling Towers - First Part (Conversation between elf Tower Master and Guard, meeting, duel - POV varies) - James Fenimore Cooper

Falling Towers - Second Part (Crawling through a cramped tunnel, discussion of magic - POV varies) Vladimir Nabokov

Falling Towers is an old, old work of mine, on the 'rewrite someday' list.

Didn't put more than four or six pages from any chapter into this thing - maybe 1000 - 2000 words.

Quite the variety. Good in some cases, I suppose, where the POV characters are different. But I have read very little or nothing at all of several of these authors (Nabokov, Wallace, Joyce, Chuck). Vonnegut was one of the old fantasy/SF greats, and while I have read some of his stuff, he's not exactly a favorite of mine. I have a lot of Lovecraftian elements...but how does his style figure into a ball? Makes me wonder just how reliable this deal is.
 

Caged Maiden

Staff
Article Team
ahahahahahh! Burn the manuscript...that's too funny. I'm not actually familiar with most of the authors that came up for my list. All I did was post first pages or two for each book.
 
I got Chuck for my Noir & Lovecraft (2x) for Medieval Fantasy & Contemporary Fantasy works. I did 1 or 2 chapters of each.

I'm surprised more of you guys aren't familiar w Palahniuk - he wrote Fightclub afterall ... I enjoyed his book Survivor but his writing is not for everyone. It's a bit depressing and incredibly existentialist ... even nihilistic at times. BUT - he does have wonderful skill in setting up & organizing chapters so even if you're not interested in the characters or plots that he produces I'd still recommend picking up one of his books and giving it a try.

I'd love to see a list of the authors available & hear their criteria for each - sentence length or structure? Grammar? Vocabulary?
This is pretty neat. Thanks for sharing it :)

Nabokov - I've always wanted to read Lolita but there's already so many wonderful books on my shelf waiting for my attention... it keeps getting pushed farther & farther down my to-read list. I'm sure everyone here can sympathize.
 
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Kobun

Scribe
I got Tolkien on my first try. No offense to Tolkien fans, but I kind of hope not. It's just not the style I want to evoke.

Edit: Anne Rice on the second shot, Shakespeare on a third one which resembled him not at all. I'm... Not really sure about the accuracy of this thing. Libre office isn't letting me copy to other programs today for what ever reason so I can't try my novel.
 
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