I Write Like Website

[XerXesXu]

Suit yourself, but don't think that if you don't understand something, no one does. There are things I know I don't understand, but I wouldn't presume that you don't understand them either.

I don't understand your absence between 2012 and 2018. Can you explain that?

 

[PennameWombat]

These two sites are using different lists of authors, although there is overlap.

Someone mentioned this site in another thread and I thought I'd check it out, just for fun.

So, I entered samples from four of my stories. The first one said that I write like Agatha Christie. Apparently, that is a common comparison. I ran the second sample and got Stephen King. I can see that.

The third and fourth comparisons were James Joyce and Vladimir Nabokov, and I began to suspect they were just fucking with me.

I Write Like

This site claims to have a 'stable' of fifty authors I Write Like - About, some contemporary (Anne Rice, Dan Brown, Stephen King) and others historical (Agatha Christie, Daniel Defoe).

But I wonder about it, because so many of us seem to almost 'default' to Agatha Christie and Anne Rice, and his list is alphabetized by FIRST name... Stephen King pops up but there are also Dan Browns.

Also, from 30 seconds of checking out his source on his git repository, he might be doing the matching with a total of, um, 52 words... although Go is not a language I've done any real work in.

I found this site to be a lot more accurate to my writing style.

(edited to denote new/different/alternate site.)

I wondered about the lack of many contemporary authors on the list from the Who-do-you-write-like blog and I found this on his other site https://mysocialbrain.org/

Yup, this second site (that claims to be doing academic research) depends purely on public domain works for sources - thus why its authors are all, um, historical.

But overall, so many of us seem to be getting lumped in with the same authors on both of these. And, well, Agatha Christie writing hot, down and dirty erotica... Hercule Poirot getting down to business

But overall, whatever these sites are doing that so many of us are intersecting on the same, small list of authors indicates it doesn't seem much more than poorly programmed random selection.

But I do have to admit, after being matched with Lucy Maud Montgomery by the second site I thought I should write an erotic Anne of Green Gables... until I read the synopsis. Okay, I've scrubbed that thought from my brain.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

I don't understand your absence between 2012 and 2018. Can you explain that?

I would assume it's more a question of information than of understanding. I also assume you're referring to stories and, perhaps, role plays, since I was frequently active in this forum as well as occasionally contributing in a few other fora during that time.

During that time, and even now, most of my story writing and role playing is done privately. If you want to understand why, I'm afraid that is private as well. I will assure you, however, that understanding Joyce's works is far more amusing and enlightening than understanding my writing practices.

 

[XerXesXu]

I would assume it's more a question of information than of understanding. I also assume you're referring to stories and, perhaps, role plays, since I was frequently active in this forum as well as occasionally contributing in a few other fora during that time.

During that time, and even now, most of my story writing and role playing is done privately. If you want to understand why, I'm afraid that is private as well. I will assure you, however, that understanding Joyce's works is far more amusing and enlightening than understanding my writing practices.

More information required. Were you performing a role in a correctional facility, or not? Where else would you get enough time to unravel the ravings of an Irish drunk?

 

[Tio_Narratore]

No, very busy with work, and a desire to stay out of the 'public' space. It doesn't take all that much time to make sense of Joyce. I presume you're thinking of Finnegans Wake when you say "ravings of an Irish drunk." It is hardly "ravings," but is a very well thought out "night-dream," an experiment in literature, if you will, and perhaps a bit of literary abstract expressionism in style.

It explores the congruence of macrocosms and microcosms within a circular theory of history, but in a very playful way, with everything going on at two or three or eleven levels at once. He even played with voices: one section has four different voices on each page, and they change places on the page as they go along. Truly a 'funferall. Try listening to Joyce himself reading the washer women passage:

Joyce Reading

 

[XerXesXu]

No, very busy with work, and a desire to stay out of the 'public' space. It doesn't take all that much time to make sense of Joyce. I presume you're thinking of Finnegans Wake when you say "ravings of an Irish drunk." It is hardly "ravings," but is a very well thought out "night-dream," an experiment in literature, if you will, and perhaps a bit of literary abstract expressionism in style.

It explores the congruence of macrocosms and microcosms within a circular theory of history, but in a very playful way, with everything going on at two or three or eleven levels at once. He even played with voices: one section has four different voices on each page, and they change places on the page as they go along. Truly a 'funferall. Try listening to Joyce himself reading the washer women passage:

Joyce Reading

Ahhhhhh ... Rehab.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Ahhhhhh ... Rehab.

If you need it, go for it.

By the way, speaking of ravings, I don't understand why anyone would take as eponym a king noted for whipping the sea because it messed up his plans.

 

[XerXesXu]

If you need it, go for it.

By the way, speaking of ravings, I don't understand why anyone would take as eponym a king noted for whipping the sea because it messed up his plans.

They said I should go to rehab, but I said 'No,No,No

They said I should go to rehab, but I won't Go,Go,Go.

Incidentally, said king knew that if you passed through the straits of Messina you didn't leave with empty hands; you left with no hands. Said creatures are tethered to my gate posts even as we speak.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

They said I should go to rehab, but I said 'No,No,No

They said I should go to rehab, but I won't Go,Go,Go.

Incidentally, said king knew that if you passed through the straits of Messina you didn't leave with empty hands; you left with no hands. Said creatures are tethered to my gate posts even as we speak.

I thought he didn't even get across the Hellespont, a long ways from Scylla and Charibdis. And he should keep his hands to himself, anyway.

Good night XXX.

 

[XerXesXu]

I thought he didn't even get across the Hellespont, a long ways from Scylla and Charibdis. And he should keep his hands to himself, anyway.

Good night XXX.

Because he knew.

Incidentally, did you know that Scylla could only make noises like a Japanese girl being fucked. Maybe geneticists will someday be able to explain that phenomenon.

Nite,nite. Though it's only 11am here.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Because he knew.

Incidentally, did you know that Scylla could only make noises like a Japanese girl being fucked. Maybe geneticists will someday be able to explain that phenomenon.

Nite,nite. Though it's only 11am here.

I'm GMT -5. If you're 12 hours ahead of me, you're not in Tottenham. The only logical explanation for that discrepancy is that you're actually just off Tottenham Court Road, on the firefly platform on Sunny Goodge Street. Just stay clear of the chocolate machine; you might lose a hand.

 

[Handley_Page]

Apparently, I write like Arthur C Clarke
or
Correy Doctrow

 

[SamScribble]

Apparently, I write like Arthur C Clarke
or
Correy Doctrow

I seem to recall that Arthur C Clarke once said that he wrote like Handley Page. Just a coincidence, do you think? Or something more?

 

[XerXesXu]

I'm GMT -5. If you're 12 hours ahead of me, you're not in Tottenham. The only logical explanation for that discrepancy is that you're actually just off Tottenham Court Road, on the firefly platform on Sunny Goodge Street. Just stay clear of the chocolate machine; you might lose a hand.

Nice one. I lived just off Fitzroy Square for much of my life, shopped at Tesco’s in Goodge St, knew the 2 basement strip clubs where you could drink ‘til 5am (licensed to serve waiters after work). If you still needed a drink after that you’d have to go to Smithfield where the pubs opened at 5am (licensed to serve the butcher boys), but I never heard of a firefly platform.

I had to Google it.

Turns out, it’s an expression used by an obscure British pop singer, I specifically remember him for being obscure, Donovan, who was exploring his psychedelic side, sounds a little like Finnegan’s Wake set to music.

Maybe it’s a reference to the rotating restaurant at the top of the BT tower, which is just off Goodge Street, but that was closed in the 70’s because it was thought to be a prime target for the IRA. It was like a combination of the London Eye and The Shard of its day. You could just sit there eating and have a birds eye view across London as you rotated.

To cut to the chase, only in a Literotica fantasy called My Public Profile do I live in Tottenham. I tarried there for a short while whilst preparing to emigrate, but, by a magic glitch, My Public Profile no longer bears any relation to My Profile. According to Google Earth there is a discrepancy of 10663.46 Km between the locations in My Profile and My Public Profile.

I put the lyrics of Firefly Platform into I Write Like, it gave back Vlad the Bad.
In Who Do You Write Like it yielded Stephen Crane. No mention anywhere of James Joyce. Useless.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Nice one. I lived just off Fitzroy Square for much of my life, shopped at Tesco’s in Goodge St, knew the 2 basement strip clubs where you could drink ‘til 5am (licensed to serve waiters after work). If you still needed a drink after that you’d have to go to Smithfield where the pubs opened at 5am (licensed to serve the butcher boys), but I never heard of a firefly platform.

I had to Google it.

Turns out, it’s an expression used by an obscure British pop singer, I specifically remember him for being obscure, Donovan, who was exploring his psychedelic side, sounds a little like Finnegan’s Wake set to music.

Maybe it’s a reference to the rotating restaurant at the top of the BT tower, which is just off Goodge Street, but that was closed in the 70’s because it was thought to be a prime target for the IRA. It was like a combination of the London Eye and The Shard of its day. You could just sit there eating and have a birds eye view across London as you rotated.

To cut to the chase, only in a Literotica fantasy called My Public Profile do I live in Tottenham. I tarried there for a short while whilst preparing to emigrate, but, by a magic glitch, My Public Profile no longer bears any relation to My Profile. According to Google Earth there is a discrepancy of 10663.46 Km between the locations in My Profile and My Public Profile.

I put the lyrics of Firefly Platform into I Write Like, it gave back Vlad the Bad.
In Who Do You Write Like it yielded Stephen Crane. No mention anywhere of James Joyce. Useless.

Apparently almost everyone on Lit writes like Stephen Crane according to that site. Crane's Poetry (see The Black Riders and Other Lines) is quite different from his prose, but I don't think either is similar to most Litsters, except insofar as they write prose and poetry.

Donovan? Not quite obscure in the 60s, so I presume your time isn't the same as my time, neither diachronically nor synchronically. I assume the firefly platform was the Goodge Street tube station. In the day, there were Cadbury vending machines on the platforms.

Haven't been there for a few years, but last time I was at UCL, Tesco's Goodge Street was still going strong.

 

[Comshaw]

I tried it 5 times with five different snippets from varying times in my writing life. An early one I did was rated as being like Stephen King.

Another from recently was rated as being like David Edward Foster.

The interesting thing though was 3 others (recently written) were rated as being like Cory Doctorow.

Hmmmmm...I'm gonna have to go look this guy up.


Comshaw

 

[XerXesXu]

Apparently almost everyone on Lit writes like Stephen Crane according to that site. Crane's Poetry (see The Black Riders and Other Lines) is quite different from his prose, but I don't think either is similar to most Litsters, except insofar as they write prose and poetry.

Donovan? Not quite obscure in the 60s, so I presume your time isn't the same as my time, neither diachronically nor synchronically. I assume the firefly platform was the Goodge Street tube station. In the day, there were Cadbury vending machines on the platforms.

Haven't been there for a few years, but last time I was at UCL, Tesco's Goodge Street was still going strong.

I did consider the tube, but ‘Sunny Goodge Street’ and ‘Drink in the sun, shining all around you’ seemed contra. Even the mice down there are black, and blind. But why and try make sense of someone exploring their psychedelic side. After Sunshine Superman, Donovan disappeared from my life, but I didn’t do drugs.

Speaking of the underground, did you know that if you went into UCH A and E, down the stairs to the basement, followed the tunnels two blocks south under the old hospital, went up the second staircase to the first floor, you emerged behind the forward defences of the nurses’ home.

Sunshine Superman yields Rudyard Kipling in Who Do you Write Like. What do you make of that?

 

[jomar]

LOL, I got Raymond Chandler and Ann Rice.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

I did consider the tube, but ‘Sunny Goodge Street’ and ‘Drink in the sun, shining all around you’ seemed contra. Even the mice down there are black, and blind. But why and try make sense of someone exploring their psychedelic side. After Sunshine Superman, Donovan disappeared from my life, but I didn’t do drugs.

Speaking of the underground, did you know that if you went into UCH A and E, down the stairs to the basement, followed the tunnels two blocks south under the old hospital, went up the second staircase to the first floor, you emerged behind the forward defences of the nurses’ home.

Sunshine Superman yields Rudyard Kipling in Who Do you Write Like. What do you make of that?

Seeing as the sunshine follows being in dollhouse rooms, I don't think the whole song is in the tube. And the telecom tower, of course, isn't on sunny Goodge street, but the firefly platform is.

At any rate, I think we'll drop the Donovan discourse in deference to the OP's aim for the thread.

 

[XerXesXu]

Seeing as the sunshine follows being in dollhouse rooms, I don't think the whole song is in the tube. And the telecom tower, of course, isn't on sunny Goodge street, but the firefly platform is.

At any rate, I think we'll drop the Donovan discourse in deference to the OP's aim for the thread.

Pollocks Toy Museum (dollhouse) is in Whitfield Street, Goodge Street Station is on Tottenham Court Road, like the BT Tower, it's not on Goodge Street, but the tower is exposed to the sun, and muzak played in the restaurant.

I agree that an enquiry into the meanings of Donovan's lyrics would be a more appropriate in a PhD thesis -Psychedelic Perception in mid-20C London, possibly undertaken in the English Department at UCL. But who would supervise?

 

[MattiasGraves]

No surprise to me, I got Stephen King. I do love his writing, and other than Anne Rice is the author who's works I have read most. Other than those two I think I find my main prose inspiration from Neil Gaiman.

Who inspired you? Do you write like them?

 

[MetaBob]

I found this site to be a lot more accurate to my writing style.

(edited to denote new/different/alternate site.)

There's also a link to a scientific study done by that site's author (a Dartmouth professor who does linguistic analysis, so perhaps more useful than a pop website that no one here seems to like) on that page. I entered excerpts from three of my pieces, identifying all as Romance:

Packback
Lucy Maud Montgomery
Jean Webster
Bertrand Russell
Louisa May Alcott

The Dog Whisperer
Arthur Conan Doyle
Lucy Maud Montgomery
Louisa May Alcott
Samuel Pepys
Rudyard Kipling

Real Amazons, Real Magic
Rudyard Kipling
Philip K. Dick
Lucy Maud Montgomery
Thomas Hardy
Willa Cather

I've never heard of Lucy Maud Montgomery before, so don't know whether to be flattered.

Edit: Ah, L(ucy) M(aud) Montgomery wrote Anne of Green Gables.

 

[Voboy]

Stephen King.

I usually aim for something a bit more Terry Pratchett-esque.

ETA: Using a longer sample in the other (AlphaLyon) website? I get a lot of people like Samuel Pepys and Jane Austen, but the correlation is only about .28. Then there's Lucy Maud Montgomery...