... Isaac Asimov. How do I know this? Because I've just been dabbling on the new 'I Write Like' website that has been taking the internet by storm.
If you visit I Write Like you can find out which famous writer your writing most closely resembles. All you need to do is copy and paste a few paragraphs of your writing, hit the 'analyse' button, and hey presto! The site does some complicated statistical comparison against a database of famous writers (the site developers know about this sort of stuff) and comes up with a name.
Not entirely happy with Asimov, I tried again with some different prose and ended up with William Gibson.
So successful has 'I Write Like' been that the site has even got its own spoof. It's called I Actually Write Like and offers to tell you "who or what writer, animal or household object you most write like".
Ok, so here the answer is somewhat less flattering. It came up with "I actually write like... a drunk working through issues"!
Well, it is Monday.
Go on, have a go. I'd really like to know who you (actually) write like. Let me know in the comments below.
Best wishes,
Claire Fogg (Publisher)
I Write Like is now on Twitter
You can follow Claire Fogg on Twitter »
On randomly chosen paragraphs from something for the novel I wrote some days ago, the "I Write Like" said that I write like:
Stephen King, Charles Dickens, J.K. Rowling (I am most proud by this comparison, Rowling being my hero), Dan Brown, Rowling again (oh the joy!), Rowling again (at this point I feel like there's something wrong with the matrix, how is it possible that I am this consistant?), another Rowling (and no, I'm not lying, this is really what it said!!!), then H. P. Lovecraft and again Rowling. That's 15 pages of mostly Rowling-like writing. The pride swells in me...
Now, I know that the odds are pretty slim, but what can I say... I like the flattery xD
Didn't even bother with the other one, though I got something decent the second time. I dislike the poo image.
From 'I Write Like' I tried a few different parts of my novel. A piece I wrote today turned out Stephen King. The first chapter (short) turned out JK Rowling and the first part of the 2nd chapter was James Joyce. I then tried a randomn piece and it threw out Dan Brown.
Quite happy even though I wouldnt take this all as fact (along with what others have posted and I also agree you should write in your own way, but everyone's 'own' way is made up of influences from our own favourites and others so I can see the lure in this) as Ive read some King, most of Brown and I am an avid JK Rowling fan (aswell as Harry Potter fan). Its only Joyce Ive never read but Ive probably read similar authors over the years.
I then tried the first chaper again in 'I Actually Write Like' (which gave JK Rowling in the original link) and I got 'A Daily Mail Writer'. Quite a coincidence considering JK Rowling is supposed to hold a dislike of this particular paper
'I also “actually write like… an adolescent goth after a heavy night on the absinthe”. Definitely more accurate.'
So much better than my comparison of actually writing like 'a scabby horse', Claire ;-)
On 'I Write Like' I got Anne Rice a few times, James Fenimore Cooper (I had to look him up, author of Last of The Mohicans). Then Dan Brown and Stephen King. Hmm.
Obviously a limited selection but a few minutes of fun nontheless. It even gave me a great topic to blog about today (work avoidance, obviously).