Meme Me Up!

[strangetomato]

I write like
Margaret Atwood

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Since the tool says it uses word choice and writing style, I wonder if my Canadian spelling had anything to do with it. *shrugs* I'm more than happy to be compared to Ms. Atwood, either way.

Runners up were Stephen King and Chuck Palahniuk. I analyzed a whole pile of stuff, and these were the three that turned up the most.

Comments

[pixelcurious.livejournal.com]

When I submitted my flying rant, I got Harry Harrison (science fiction; he wrote the book that Soylent Green is based on). Before that I tried a WoW fanfic I wrote a while back, and got Jack London. I'd like to know the criteria that the creators used, but so far they're not saying.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I got Harry Harrison once, too, and I think it was a regular journal entry that I posted to see how it would measure up to the fictional writing. Maybe he has a very conversational style?

I'm very curious, too. I got so many different authors for different pieces, I was starting to feel like it must be random. (My SO even suggested trying the same thing twice to test it, which confirms that it isn't.) These three did turn up about 4-5 times each vs. 1-2 for other authors, so that seems to show a logic in the way it works.

[pixelcurious.livejournal.com]

Maybe I will try some more (later, after I goof around with sims!) But I really wonder if there's much of anything to it... maybe it's just a big joke on all of us narcissistic writers, trying to see who of the big names we measure up to.

Yours is only the second I've seen with a female author, also, which makes me think there's something to the criticisms. (We all write like white men.)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Well, I think it is pretty silly, when it comes down to it. If I use about the same percentage of quotation marks or semicolons as some famous author, that really doesn't say a lot about my writing skill, for better or worse.

I saw that comment about the lack of female authors, and I would hope they'd try to make the representation as equal as it could be (like art and film and everything else, we're going to be outnumbered by men, though I would have imagined that the writing world would be slightly more even). I had J.K. Rowling once, also. Is that the other one you saw?

[pixelcurious.livejournal.com]

Yes, J.K. Rowling was the other female author I saw. Though from someone who put in tons of writing samples from various authors (not their own) I also saw Jane Austen. So that's three...

I'm truly not bent out of shape about it. Just amused at myself, last night when I encountered it, trying to figure out why I got Jack London (and realizing it probably had nothing much to do with my actual writing skill).

[will-o-whisper.livejournal.com]

The first two works I tried this meme with, I got Dan Brown.

I cried.

I've gotten James Joyce and Stephen King a lot, and a few H. P. Lovecraft (???). I don't think the actual style is all that different across my work, so apparently this meme thinks all these writers are pretty much the same and interchangeable? Possibly, it's focusing more on content, but that doesn't explain King or Lovecraft to me. So that would make me yet another person wondering about criteria here.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Oh man. I'd cry, too. XD (Though I did read The DaVinci Code and it's hard to argue that it's a page turner, at least.)

H.P. Lovecraft? That's cool.

I'd definitely suggest posting a lot of different to try to see a pattern in it. I was getting so many different things, I was starting to think I obviously had no style whatsoever, but repeated postings (good thing I have many, many S,HWC chapters handy here) did show a pattern for me.

I'd love to know more about how it works, too.

[will-o-whisper.livejournal.com]

Step aside, Cthulhu, I've got your new generation of insanity and horror right here. Or something. I must not read enough Lovecraft, because I really have no idea what would have pinged him.

I found Joyce came up a lot for my short stories and blog posts, while my smut is apparently pure Palahniuk, which was kind of interesting (and flattering, at least in Joyce's case :P). I'm choosing to ignore the Dan Brown insults ;(.

It's a lot of fun, anyway! I only wish the results didn't tend so strongly towards straight white men. Few people seem to be getting women, and I don't think I've seen any LGBTQ writers or people of color; if they're there, there aren't many of them.

[kin-thalas.livejournal.com]

Heh, I got her too. Had to look her name up in wikipedia, though, but I think I can be proud to be compared to her XD

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I agree. She's a great writer. And with the number of literary awards she's received or been a finalist for, it's flattering to be compared to her, for sure.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Cool. I guess we write in a similar structure or use a lot of the same words? When I got him, I assumed it was the cursing, but he came up for things without any harsh language at all, also. It makes me wonder how much content is factored into it.

I quite like his work, though I've actually become physically ill while reading one of his stories.

[murrealism.livejournal.com]

Hehe, I did this and the 1st writer I got was Chuck Palahniuk. My piece was really graphic and had ick factor, but no swearing at all.

[(Anonymous)]

I tried it and it told me I write like Stephen King.

[ownsimscorner.livejournal.com]

I got Charles Dickens when I submitted a commentary from my latest legacy. Then I submitted an older text that was mostly dialogue and also got Chuck Palahniuk. Thoroughly confused, specially since I`m ESL.

[(Anonymous)]

Nice find and an interesting motivation to dig up old writting. I do wish it told a little something about why it picked what it did but ah well.

I put in an old, old, oooold (and bad) fanfic and it said Mark twain O.o
Put in a some newer, but still not very good, writting and got H.P. Lovecraft

I wonder if you put in a certain authors work, would you get the right author? I have to try that now.

[abbycat900.livejournal.com]

Well, I just tried and it told me I write like J. K. Rowling- but that might have something to do with the fact the first sentence includes the words "the Daily Prophet."

I tried two other short things I'd written, and I got Stephen King and Kurt Vonnegut. Go figure!