Challenge - How Distinctive Is Your Writing?

I liked Simon's reasoning on Group C:

OK, this is as usual interestingly hard, and I'm going to start with an odd association: in story 1, the bus conductor is called 'the transport agent'. Not in London, he ain't. So although that story purports to be British, its author isn't. On the other hand the author of story 9 knows quite a lot about old British motorbikes. Not enough. If he knew enough he'd know that the square four, though it looked cool, was a dog, and the rear cylinders used to overheat.

However, while old British people may know about old British motorcycles, I think it's less probable that a woman would be fetishistic about that particular hunk of metal. So I'm betting that, despite the female POV character, the author of 9 is British, male, and over 55.

Oggbashan is a candidate. I kind of suspect The_Fool may also be a candidate, but I can find nothing written by The_Fool. Liar is also apparently male, as is Thee Goat Pig. Right! Quite arbitrarily I'm assigning TheeGoatPig to 5 - he hasn't had a shag for a long time, and you get that feeling from that story. I'm assigning The_Fool to 3 because... well, it's surreal, and so it his nom de plume.


I agree with him about the Ariel Square Four. It was a pleasant touring machine but would not stand being thrashed. However, I had another reason for doubting the age and sex of the author of that piece. An Ariel Square Four in roadworthy condition, despite its flaws, is worth much more than the values quoted. Anyone who had ridden a Square Four would be aware of its faults and its current price (and cursed themselves for not keeping one!).

I didn't think the author of 9 was Gauche. I KNEW I didn't write it.

Og
 
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5/42... LMAO. Three times I started to change my answers to Neonlyte's and FTF's, but figured I'd be wrong to second guess myself, lol.

Congrats, Dampy! :kiss: I was hopin' you'd win, 'cause I'm dyin' to see the AH fantasy Fallen doesn't want to write. :D

Only one person guessed mine right. Gauchecritic. :D

8 guesses attributed my writing to amicus.
4 to Neonlyte
3 to Vella
2 to Varian
2 to champagne
2 to Simon
and 1 each to Vana, Penny, Fem, CV, Imp and rachlou.

Very interesting challenge. When's the next one? :nana:
 
Number Of Correct Guesses By Writer

16 Skip
15 drkside
12 inlovewithyourghost
12 matriarch
12 StellaOmega
11 i_love_u_in_me
10 jushorny
10 Lauren
9 CharleyH
9 past_perfect
8 Munachi
8 Simon
8 Trombonus
7 Neonlyte
7 Oggbashan
6 Amicus
6 Nirvana
6 Perfect_munachi
5.5* CVIV
5 Gauchecritic
5 neonurotic
4 Fallenfromgrace
4 Impressive
4 Liar
4 Remec
4 Vermilion
3 CD
3 Champagne
3 FtF
3 Penelope
3 Rachlou
3 starrkers
3 Varian P
2 Selenakittyn
2 Vella
1 Angelicminx
1 Crim
1 JennyJackson
0 RebeccaLeah
0 Redhaired&friendly
0 TE999
0 The_Fool

*Due to Vella's guess of "SimonBrooke or ChilledVodkaIV"
 
angelicminx said:
Congrats, Dampy! :kiss: I was hopin' you'd win, 'cause I'm dyin' to see the AH fantasy Fallen doesn't want to write. :D
Thank you. :D We're such :devil:s. Making a poor girl write something she is :eek: about writing. ;)
 
Number Of Correct Guesses By Guesser

16 Imp
16 Penny
15 Lauren
15 Nirvana
13 Neonurotic
12 past_perfect
11 amicus
11 Dampy
11 Liar
9 SelenaK
9 starrkers
8 champagne
8 Crim
8 fallen
7 Femininty
7 neonlyte
6 CD
6 drkside
6 FtF
6 Skip
5 angelicminx
5 gauchecritic
4 Munachi
4 TE999
4 Trombonus
3 rachlou
2 feeeriek
2 Ogg
2 Redhaired
2 Simon
1 charleyh
1 varian
0.5* Vella
0 remec
0 Vermilion

*See last post.
 
I loved being the wildcard, and seeing people guess that I wrote a couple of those stories. That was so fun :D

I was going to write a story about a woman who is used to being flown around in Helicopters being forced to take a limo, and then thought of an idea where a man falls asleep in a elevator while making out with a woman, but never got around to typing either of them :(
 
Is my writing so bad that everybody can pick it out? I think I'll go back to writing Technical Manuals for the Nuclear Power Industry. :rolleyes:

Okay, it's confession time, folks. How many of you thought that FTF would know my entry and guessed as she did?
 
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angelicminx said:

Very interesting challenge. When's the next one? :nana:
Simon posted a thread for one, I'll try to find the link.

ETA: Tis here, but I see you've already visited. ;)
 
angelicminx said:
5/42... LMAO. Three times I started to change my answers to Neonlyte's and FTF's, but figured I'd be wrong to second guess myself, lol.

Congrats, Dampy! :kiss: I was hopin' you'd win, 'cause I'm dyin' to see the AH fantasy Fallen doesn't want to write. :D

Only one person guessed mine right. Gauchecritic. :D

8 guesses attributed my writing to amicus.
4 to Neonlyte
3 to Vella
2 to Varian
2 to champagne
2 to Simon
and 1 each to Vana, Penny, Fem, CV, Imp and rachlou.

Very interesting challenge. When's the next one? :nana:
I think I read most of your story list and struggled (obviously) to detect a style :D
I found this challenge incredibly hard and the 'C' list - where I thought I knew more of the writers, was where I was least accurate. The only ones I actually felt certain about were: CharleyH, Falling and SimonB. Liar I could easily have switched with Gauche and got them both wrong, but at least I found him in CVodka.
 
I got 13 guesses right?! Wow. Thanks for this challenge everyone, especially Min for the logistics of it all. It was a great time. :rose:
 
SimonBrooke said:
Oh, bugger. I still haven't done group B, and I don't have time this morning.


Better than me...I got bogged down with this and that towards the end of the week and over the weekend and never made any more than one guess total. *sigh*

But, as has been mentioned by several people already, this has peaked my interest even more in reading longer pieces by some of the participants.
 
Who were the two who guessed that I wrote the one I did? :eek:


TE999 had it there, for a second... then changed the guess! lol


I think there was a bit of peer-pressure "looking at someone else'e paper" on this one *grin* I know I guessed Skip 'cuz f2f did, and I guess ILUIM's 'cuz drkside did...


Great job, Min, this was a LOT of work, thanks for organizing it all!


ETA: And I had the_fool as a wildcard... and HE wrote the one that everyone thought *I* wrote... what a compliment! :cathappy:


ETA (again): Ahhh Neoneurotic and Penelope were the two who got mine! :) Sorry I missed yours Penny... :eek:
 
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RedHairedandFriendly said:
Vana. . . You would have gotten me right if you had not changed your answer. ;) :kiss: :rose: It took all my will-power not to PM you and tell you to put your guesses back up!!!

Simon. . .I found your posts fun to read. . . this however:
simon said:
5 could be argued as lesbian but is a male fantasy; the action is about driver Stephen's response to the girls. Male and... not an especially sophisticated narrative. A younger author, or else someone who's interest is in stroke.
made me want to PM you too. ;) :p :D :kiss:

Ha! Two - TWO - out of 28 right. After all my work - I read other stories by every single author, constructed a spreadsheet, scored everyone - and 2! I'd have been better tossing dice!

[ETA]Ah, but I see I beat Charley! Will she ever live that down?
 
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SelenaKittyn said:
NO ONE guessed that I wrote the one I did? :eek:


TE999 had it there, for a second... then changed the guess! lol


I think there was a bit of peer-pressure "looking at someone else'e paper" on this one *grin* I know I guessed Skip 'cuz f2f did, and I guess ILUIM's 'cuz drkside did...


Great job, Min, this was a LOT of work, thanks for organizing it all!


ETA: And I had the_fool as a wildcard... and HE wrote the one that everyone thought *I* wrote... what a compliment! :cathappy:

I suspect you're not the only one to 'copy another student's paper' I think no one had guessed me right until FtF posted, and after that I was 'guessed' quite frequently.

It was a fun experience, and I learned that I don't know some writers nearlly as well as I thought I did. But as Jenny pointed out, almost any of us could have written the snippit she posted to make that very point.

Minsuee deserves big kudos for her handling of this. A marvelous job.
 
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SimonBrooke said:
Ha! Two - TWO - out of 28 right. After all my work - I read other stories by every single author, constructed a spreadsheet, scored everyone - and 2! I'd have been better tossing dice!

[ETA]Ah, but I see I beat Charley! Will she ever live that down?

I got two, too. :D

I'm going to develop that story I wrote. . .put back in the detail and though it may still be a work of stroke. . ;) I do hope to slide in a bit more sophistication. :D Hope you'll read it when I'm done. :D

But really, I loved reading all your information for each section of stories. It made it even more fun. :)
 
SimonBrooke said:
Ha! Two - TWO - out of 28 right. After all my work - I read other stories by every single author, constructed a spreadsheet, scored everyone - and 2! I'd have been better tossing dice!

[ETA]Ah, but I see I beat Charley! Will she ever live that down?

Well, if she ever posts another "HEY WHERE ARE THE WRITING THREADS!?!?" posts........

:devil:

:D

:kiss:


ETA: Trombonus DID throw did and he did better. He got 4. ;)
 
SelenaKittyn said:
Who were the two who guessed that I wrote the one I did? :eek:

ETA (again): Ahhh Neoneurotic and Penelope were the two who got mine! :) Sorry I missed yours Penny... :eek:

I'm really sorry I missed yours! I'm still struggling in coming to terms with confusing Penny and Amicus :eek:
 
oggbashan said:
I didn't think the author of 9 was Gauche. I KNEW I didn't write it.

Og


Yours and Drksd's were the only 2 that I was 99% sure of. Drkside because I edit his work, and his style and subject matter are usually pretty distinctive... and you, Og, I think had an advantage over most of us because you often write short pieces, and so it's easy to pick you out of a list of short pieces. :)
 
I was interested to see what people thought I had written, and those who guessed my story right.

I am surprised that 4 people thought that Matriarch had written my piece; another 4 thought that past_perfect had, and 3 each chose starrkers and liar. I did leave the sex of the protagonist deliberately obscure.

I proved my own incompetence at guessing the authors from Groups A and B, but I did post my guesses when most people hadn't started.

An interesting exercise that proves what? That our styles aren't as distinctive as we thought they were? That subject matter is more of a give-away than writing style? Or proves nothing at all but entertained us for a few days?

Og
 
SelenaKittyn said:
Yours and Drksd's were the only 2 that I was 99% sure of. Drkside because I edit his work, and his style and subject matter are usually pretty distinctive... and you, Og, I think had an advantage over most of us because you often write short pieces, and so it's easy to pick you out of a list of short pieces. :)

I expected to be correctly identified by more than actually did. Perhaps writing exactly 500 words (including the two-word title) was a giveaway, but that wasn't obvious until Simon started analysing the stories.

I often write short pieces? Many of my stories are several Lit pages long. Then there are the fifty-word exercises. My competition entries have been shorter recently because of RL pressure on writing time. I don't think I have a favourite length but I CAN write to a precisely defined number of words after 40 years' practice.

Og
 
oggbashan said:
An interesting exercise that proves what? That our styles aren't as distinctive as we thought they were? That subject matter is more of a give-away than writing style? Or proves nothing at all but entertained us for a few days?

Og

I'd go with proves nothing, but entertains. I know I'll read more of many who participated. I'm ready for another, but I can't write poetry, so I'm out of that one.
 
I just couldn't even begin to guess, because I wanted to do the reasearch and I had, as it turned out, no time :eek: Thtats me., always late on my commitments :eek: :eek:
but now I see that I could have tossed dice anyway...

I am going to enjoy re-reading these with their proper attributions!

I noticed that most times when my name was mis-attributed, I was linked to CrimsonMaiden's story, or The Fool's, for which I feel honored :rose:
 
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