Have you ever wondered if you’re a Nicolai Gogol or Dan Brown? James Joyce or J.K. Rowling? Well, one of my fellow writers in my Master’s program has brought my attention to an interesting program which tells you which famous writer you write like.
This program is called, simply enough, “I Write Like” and can be found at this website. All you have to do is paste or type a sample of your writing (preferably a few paragraphs or more) into the text box and click “Analyze”. The program does the rest, analyzing your word choice and writing style and comparing them to those of famous writers.
You can use any text so long as it is in English, whether it’s a short story, novel chapter, blog post, or even a diary entry. Don’t worry–the program doesn’t store your writing or do anything with your writing other than the comparison advertised.
Image retrieved from eBay
I must warn you, this program is quite addictive.
I’ve used the program to analyze some of my short stories, blog posts, essay abstracts, and even a short chapter from a fantasy novel I’m working on. The results have been very interesting. The program has compared my writing to David Foster Wallace, Anne Rice, and Stephenie Meyer. (Admittedly, while The Twilight Saga is one of my many guilty pleasures, I wasn’t too happy with that last comparison.)
However, there is one writer whom the program has compared me to much more often than the others: British detective fiction author, Agatha Christie. I’ve never gotten the chance to read her work, personally. Still, she’s known as the “Queen of Mystery” and the “Queen of Crime,” and The Guinness Book of World Records lists her as the best-selling novelist of all time. Needless to the say, I’m quite happy with this result.
Whether you think the program is accurate or not, it’s still loads of fun and a great way to procrastinate when you really don’t want to do something (even writing). Try it out for yourself! And let us know which famous writer you write like in the comments below. I’m eager to see what everyone gets.
Do you know of any cool distractions or neat tools to helps writers be more productive? Drop a line in the comments or e-mail me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com, and I’ll make sure to discuss it in a future post. You can also leave a comment on The Writer’s Scrap Bin Facebook page or tweet at The Writer’s Scrap Bin Twitter account (@writersscrapbin).
Designed by Stephanie Hoogstad circa 2011
………………. Machiavelli? >:]
I have used this program and almost invariably, I am told I write like Agatha Christie. My non-fiction essays came back with Arthur C. Clark. I can’t complain about either assessment, but when I uploaded a large excerpt from an author I like, Tana French, I was still told that “I” write like Agatha Christie. I have to say that it makes me doubt the accuracy of the program.