by Shirley Ann Howard
Member since:
February 2, 2008

Find Out What Famous Author You Write Like

July 15, 2010 09:52 AM UTC
views: 0 | 6 people recommend this | comments: 45

I was recently introduced to this website www.iwl.me (I Write Like). If you paste a few paragraphs of your writing, it will be analyzed and compared to a famous writer. I know all you Gather writers will love to try it.

I did it three times.

Sample #1 My first novel TALES OUT OF SCHOOL---is, according to IWL written in the style of David Foster Wallace.

Mr. Wallace called his writing "morally passionate, passionately moral fiction that could help readers become less alone inside."

I like that, that's fine by me. I'll take it.

Sample #2 My second novel TALES OUT OF COLLEGE was analyzed in the style of Dan Brown. Yeah right.

My major question about this website is how can it analyze so fast??? It only takes a second, which defies credibility for me.

Try it if you like. All comments welcome.

 

 

 

 

Comments: 45

Kevin E. Jul 15, 2010, 10:09am UTC
This is a great site. Thank you for sharing it.
Tracy Fabre Jul 15, 2010, 11:28am UTC
I'm going to go check it out -- will report back shortly.
Tracy Fabre Jul 15, 2010, 11:31am UTC
Ha... first I pasted in something from a chatty email.

I write like Stephen King.

I'm okay with that. I haven't read any King in about 15 years but I loved books like The Green Mile, Dead Zone, The Stand and The Shining.
Peter Joseph Swanson Jul 15, 2010, 11:33am UTC
Tracy is far more delightful that King!


I don't find King "delightful" at all


(He has far more of a workhorse quality)
Tracy Fabre Jul 15, 2010, 11:35am UTC
Then I pasted in an excerpt from Evan's Castle.

I write like David Foster Wallace.

Ha... same answer for an excerpt from Reasons.

But for the excerpt from Sending Rupert Home --

I write like J. D. Salinger.

Interesting. I will admit I never even HEARD of David Foster Wallace, so now I gotta go check him out.
Tracy Fabre Jul 15, 2010, 11:36am UTC
Peter, you must paste yourself in there!

(Yours will probably say you write like Peter Joseph Swanson.)
(But if it says David Foster Wallace, then I think David Foster Wallace owns that site.)
Cynthia M. Jan 21, 2013, 12:46am UTC
He died in 2008. If he's in there, then it's his ghost giving you these answers. (spooky music rises out of nowhere)
Peter Joseph Swanson Jul 15, 2010, 11:36am UTC
I write like
Neil Gaiman


(Off to google who he is)
Peter Joseph Swanson Jul 15, 2010, 11:39am UTC
I write like a British guy. Okay, guess what novel I did a bit from.


(Merlin)
Tracy Fabre Jul 15, 2010, 11:43am UTC
Ooh, that's good. Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (also excellent) co-wrote the marvy Good Omens.
Peter Joseph Swanson Jul 15, 2010, 11:40am UTC
Ha ha, I wrote BAD MOVIES like James Joyce! Woot!
Peter Joseph Swanson Jul 15, 2010, 11:42am UTC
I wrote THE JOAN CRAWFORD MURDERS like Charles Dickens? OH MY GOD!
Peter Joseph Swanson Jul 15, 2010, 11:42am UTC
(that one should have compared me to Bram Stoker!)


ha ha
Peter Joseph Swanson Jul 15, 2010, 11:46am UTC
I wrote HOLLYWOOD SINNERS like Stephen King?

I don't think so.
Peter Joseph Swanson Jul 15, 2010, 11:52am UTC
I'm sulking that I didn't paste me in and it didn't say

YOU WRITE LIKE THE FABULOUS PETER JOSEPH SWANSON

(ha ha)
Tracy Fabre Jul 15, 2010, 11:55am UTC
See? That's what it should have said.
Tracy Fabre Jul 15, 2010, 12:00pm UTC
Oh, funny -- for my fake Christmas newsletter, it says I write like Raymond Chandler.
Peter Joseph Swanson Jul 15, 2010, 12:06pm UTC
A Christmas letter like Raymond Chandler!


HA HA HA HA HA HA !!!!!
Laurence Northcote Jul 15, 2010, 12:20pm UTC
It says that I write like James Joyce!!
Tried some of my Gather stuff:

"Help Nippy Get a DVD Player" came back as David Foster Wallace.

My hundred word short short "Wild Chipmunks" came back as Chuck Palahniuk

My antisocialwrite effort "La Notion du Myth--Pac Man Turns 30 and Semioticists Have a Kegger" came back as David Foster Wallace.

My antisocialwrite article "Zombie Jesus (Video) and Deviled Egg Recipe" came back as David Foster Wallace.

I had to look up David Foster Wallace. Turns out he did journalism and literary fiction with a mildly surreal bent.
I was really hoping for Dorothy Parker, Jack Vance, Peter Carey, or Edward Gibbon. A. J. Liebling would have pleased me.
Tracy Fabre Jul 15, 2010, 4:12pm UTC
I wonder if what this really means is that David Foster Wallace sounds like everybody else?
Chanell Gautreaux Jul 15, 2010, 1:44pm UTC
Interesting. I'll have to check this out!
I tried some old emails and other stuff:

Customer service request to the cable company: David Foster Wallace
Posting to a harmonica related email list: David Foster Wallace
Posting to a blues related email list promoting a gig: Stephen King
CD review for local blues society newsletter: Margaret Mitchell
I've never read anything by Wallace, Mitchell, or King. Until I looked him up (see above) I didn't know anything about Wallace except that he was an author.

I have read several books by Chuck Palahniuk. I think I've just about reached my limit with him.
Janna, VP, Ennui Jul 15, 2010, 5:24pm UTC
Nippy, for Davis Foster Wallace, give this non-fiction piece a try. I think you might like it.
Not too bad. I'll check out his stuff at the library. I tried a couple of samples from the article in the analysis engine.

Sample 1--David Foster Wallace
Sample 2--Jack London
Trexler Topping Jul 15, 2010, 4:47pm UTC
I entered the opening three paragraphs of a piece of mine. Result: Vladimir Nabokov

I entered the next three paragraphs of the same piece. Result: David Foster Wallace

I entered the next three paragraphs of the same piece. Result: H.P. Lovecraft

I entered a chunk of the same piece that had a lot of dialog. Result: Stephen King

Then, for a baseline, I typed in three paragraphs from David Foster Wallace. And quess what? David Foster Wallace writes like David Foster Wallace. But I knew that all along.
Cynthia M. Jan 21, 2013, 12:45am UTC
I began to wonder if some of this is randomly generated. I can't imagine that I write like anyone but myself. But after you mentioned your results after pasting in some actual DFW prose...consider me gobsmacked.
Tried some public domain classics:

Edward Gibbon from "The Decline and Fall..."--Jonathan Swift
Honore de Balzac from "Colonel Chabert" translated by Ellen Marriage and Clara Bell--H. P. Lovecraft
John Cleland "Fanny Hill"--James Joyce
Mark Twain "Huckleberry Finn"--Mark Twain
Mark Twain "Eve's Diary"--Arthur C. Clarke
Shirley Ann Howard Jul 15, 2010, 8:25pm UTC
Glad this sparked some interesting conversation. It sounds like David Foster Wallace is enormously popular. I think I read he was 'matter of fact.'
N. K.* . Jul 15, 2010, 10:01pm UTC
Interesting. Apparently I write like Kurt Vonnegut.

Oh how I wish that were true.
Janna, VP, Ennui Jul 15, 2010, 10:58pm UTC
I had fun entering nonsense paragraphs generated by the "Greeking Machine" in several different "languages" and got:

Classical Latin: James Joyce
Hillbilly: Margaret Mitchell
Metropolitan: Dan Brown
Techno Babble: David Foster Wallace
Pseudo German: Kurt Vonnegut
Marketing: David Foster Wallce

Also:

"F*ck you. You s*ck. I love marzipan.": Chuck Palahniuk
"F*ck you. You stink. I love marzipan.": J.D. Salinger
"Your mother s*cks c*cks in hell": James Joyce
"Why you little maggot, you make me want to vomit!": Margaret Atwood
That Margaret Atwood. She's a different woman altogether when she lets her hair down and puts on her leather catsuit.
Thanks for the link to the Greeking Machine. I think I'll use it in my new socialwrite career. I notice they have "marketing" as a language choice.
aniko    Jul 16, 2010, 7:36am UTC
Computers know best. :)
Trish A. Jul 15, 2010, 11:04pm UTC
This sounds like fun.
Marge H. Aug 24, 2010, 12:08pm UTC
ROFL. Love the comments too.
Marge H. Aug 24, 2010, 12:17pm UTC
I entered an excerpt from Flickertail & Paint. Apparently, I write like Margaret Mitchell. LOL
Cynthia M. Jan 21, 2013, 12:41am UTC
Sample #1: David Foster Wallace
Sample #2: Edgar Allen Poe
Sample #3: Dan Brown
Sample #4: William Shakespeare

Holy cow! I'm all over the place here.

Join the Conversation
Chime in! Become a Gather member to comment.
Already a member? Sign in
top
 
Gather | Friends | Groups | Share
About Gather | Engagement Marketing | Gather Points | Advertise on Gather | Gather Press | Privacy | Terms of Service | Community Guidelines
Books | Business | Celebs | Entertainment | Family | Food | Giveaways | Health | Money | Moms | News | Politics | Sports | Style | Technology | Travel | Writing
Version 18247, "Zach"; Copyright © 2013 Gather Inc. All rights reserved.