Wednesday, July 14, 2010

I Write Like Margaret Atwood?

Should you be in the mood for a hilarious compliment to boost your boldness factor, go get your writing "analyzed" at I Write Like Margaret Atwood.

All you have to do is paste in a few paragraphs and the site's software speedily decides what well-known writer uses similar word choice and syntax.

I ran across it on a Facebook entry this morning and hurried straight to the site.

I learned that I am very versatile. I pasted in a few grafs from three of my novels.

In my first Revelation, about a Chapel Hill minister who hears the voice of God, "I Write Like H.P. Lovecraft." Wikipedia reminds me that this early 20th century writer of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror is known especially for "the subgenre known as weird fiction.

Lovecraft's guiding literary principle was what he termed 'cosmicism' or 'cosmic horror'..."

In my second, Sister India, "I Write Like Jonathan Swift." Jonathan Swift!! Remember Gulliver's Travels? How is it that I write like a turn of the 18th century British satirist, preacher, and pamphleteer? Probably because the narrating main character is an American woman who has taken to Indian English.

And I've happily learned that in my recently completed "Blue Serpent Rising," "I Write Like Vladimir Nabokov." This pleases me. I can live with this. In fact, I think it would make a nice blurb. My "Blue Serpent" and Lolita do have some interests in common.

Go give it a try and report back who you write like. One way or another, it's likely to give you an emboldening burst of energy.




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5 comments:

Peggy Payne said...

Addendum: I just tested a few grafs of the young adult novel I'm working on now: "I Write Like Dan Brown."

My office partner, Carrie Knowles, just gave this a try with three different short stories and all of them came out "Like Stephen King." With her memoir about her mother's Alzheimer's, she again writes "Like Stephen King."

kenju said...

I am sure mine would say I am a lowly newspaper reporter! LOL

billie said...

Peggy, I did this yesterday - first novel got James Joyce, and blog got Stephen King. It's interesting that different novels get different writers for you!

Peggy Payne said...

Wow, James Joyce! You can dine out on that.

My blog, like my kundalini novel, came out Nabokov. I wouldn't have predicted that.

I might try a bit of Nabokov at the site and see who he's like. Himself, maybe?

billie said...

That's a good idea - put in some passages from the actual authors and see if they match themselves!