Who Would You Like To Write Like?

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         By now many of you have run a writing sample through the website I Write Like.   My first sample that I put through of my writing was declared to be like the writing of Chuck Palahniuk.  I was impressed even though at the time I had no idea who he was and had to look him up.  The next sample I ran through said that I write like Dan Brown.   Cool!  Looked like I had the potential of writing a best selling novel.

          Then I started experimenting.  I put in a passage from Huckleberry Finn.  The writing program quickly spat out Mark Twain.  Too easy I thought, so I submitted a passage from a modern translation of the Book of Jonah out of the Bible.  The response was Daniel Defoe.  Hmmm--Well there is some similarity between the stories of Robinson Crusoe and Jonah--kind of, in a way.

           Curious, I tried a passage from the Book of Ezekiel.   The comparison was to Kurt Vonnegut.  Now, I suppose some of Vonnegut's fans think of him as a writing god, but this comparison was going a bit far.  Since I was on a roll I tried one more, this time another sample from the Bible came back as sounding like Anne Rice.  Okay, that did it.  The program was not always accurate.
     
             The I Write Like program was developed by Russian software developer Dmitry Chestnykh.  He fed about 50 famous writers into a data base and created a program that would analyze writing and compare the sample to one of those writers.  It's a fun little diversion that is more like a technological parlor trick than any reliable system of writing analysis.  Cool?  Yes.  Reliable?  It has its limits.   A lot of us seem to write like the same writers according to this website.


             Personally, I would like to have an amazingly distinctive style that is readily identifiable as me.  But I know I don't.  I have a voice, but it is a casual modern voice that is not unlike a lot of writers that I read.  That's okay with me because I prefer to write in the style that I enjoy reading.  


            If I were asked, "Who would you like to write like?", then I would probably mention someone like Flannery O'Connor, William Faulkner, or even Stephen King.   They all have writing qualities that I find admirable.   But also they are all different.   Maybe a bit of each combined into a mishmash of me might be nice.


           Who would you like to write like?   Have you submitted any of your writing samples to I Write Like?  What did that program say about you?


           I think you will enjoy the Tossing It Out guest spot on Wednesday when Nicole from The Madlab Post makes a return visit with a blogging inspiration comparison to writers in the movies.  How about I tease you with "Johnny Depp" for starters?  Be sure to stop in this Wednesday to find out more.
            
            
       

Related articles

• Writer's Tips #64: From the Lips of Kurt Vonnegut (worddreams.wordpress.com)
• 8 Writing Tips from Flannery O'Connor (my.psychologytoday.com)
• Writing Rant (ringingtrue.net)
• I Write Like Me (ezrasf.com)

Sparkfest! Part 2

        Today I am continuing with the Sparkfest which is hosted by The Writer Coaster.

Sparkfest

What author set off that spark of inspiration for your current Work in Progress?


        I'm sad to say that the progress on my current Work in Progress has been put into very slow motion, but it is still active unlike some of my works that are on the shelf accumulating dust.  My NaNo novel from 2010, Time Light, is something that I continue to work on and think about.  In other words it's not dead.  My preparation and wrap-up activities for the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge have taken a great deal of my time in the first half of this year and catching up from that, keeping my blog current, and just dealing with daily life provide plenty to veer me off course.  It's really a poor excuse, but I'm sticking with it.


       It would be difficult to pinpoint the spark of inspiration for Time Light.   The style is an amalgam of the styles of modern writers that I have read over the years.  I'd like to think that it is my own style, but it is similar to many modern writers.   For what it's worth (and I don't think much) according the web site I Write Like, my style is like Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club.  I won't complain about that comparison, although I've never read anything by Palahniuk so I couldn't say for sure and that being the case I certainly can't cite him as being any influence or inspiration to my writing.  My writing is my style and I'll take credit or accept blame for it.


      One could probably find quirks in the writing that might one day identify the style as my own.  I hope that will eventually be the case.   I'll have to consider this question of inspiration more as I continue to finish my novel and then as I revise my manuscript. Maybe that spark will come to me and then again, maybe it won't.


        Do you like to be compared to other established authors?   Would you want your writing to be mistaken for that of a well known author?   Have you run your writing sample through I Write Like?   Who did you write like?


      


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