The Millions

Curiosities

Who do you Write Like?

1. Maria
   at 3:47 pm on July 13, 2010

   It says I write like Vladimir Nabokov and Stephen King. (I had to try it twice, too.) But seriously: do you think it’s really an analysis? Or a gimmick to get exposure for the company’s journal software? I say gimmick. (I also say I’m glad it didn’t tell me I write like Dan Brown.)

2. Write Like Jehu? « Odd Lots
   at 3:51 pm on July 13, 2010

   [...] following this link to “I Write Like,” a website that tells you who you write like. (Thanks to Edan Lepucki at The Millions for posting the link.) Anyway, according to the site, I apparently write like H.P. Lovecraft (based [...]

3. Fawn Neun
   at 4:02 pm on July 13, 2010

   It says I write like Nabokov and/or Joyce – depending on which characters POV I use for analysis. This may explain why I’m having so much trouble selling my paranormal YA romance.

4. Edan Lepucki
   at 4:03 pm on July 13, 2010

   Maria, I think it’s probably a gimmick–but all in good fun. I assume they only have a handful of authors to choose from, all of them household names.

   Fawn, your comment made me laugh!

5. Edan Lepucki
   at 4:05 pm on July 13, 2010

   Also, check out how this writer debunked the program!
   http://mar-see-ah.tumblr.com/post/807685347

6. Pete
   at 12:55 pm on July 14, 2010

   Has to be a gimmick. I entered two stories, and it told me I write like both H.P. Lovecraft and James Joyce.

7. Mathias Black
   at 3:37 pm on July 14, 2010

   It’s very entertaining. I write like J.D. Salinger, Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, and Raymond Chandler, depending on the sample I plug in. These are all big sellers. Looks like I have a prosperous future ahead of me.

   But want to get a good giggle out of this “analysis”? Copy-paste the text from a well-known author. James Joyce writes like, well, James Joyce, but Emily Bronte writes like Charles Dickens and Margaret Atwood owes her prose to Daniel Defoe, while Jennifer Egan, according to the machine, writes like Dan Brown…

8. Rhea
   at 6:06 am on November 20, 2012

   Not the most reliable. I tried 2 different paragraphs from Rowling’s Casual Vacancy. One said Stephenie Meyer (I’m not sure Rowling would be flattered by that) and the other said Kurt Vonnegut. And there is no way the style of Twilight and Slaughterhouse-Five are the same!
   Entertaining though!