"I Write Like"

[kentauros]

Just found this page reading through disinfo and thought y'all would like it, maybe stimulate a little more interest around here :)

Here are my results from the I Write Like analysis page, first two from my blog and second from my book (their html code block doesn't seem to work here, so it's just text for now...)

Blog
I Write Like: Cory Doctorow

I Write Like: David Foster Wallace

Fiction
I Write Like: Stephen King


:D

[nuxvomica]

1. This was also posted in the Lounge recently

I ran every chapter of my novel through it and this is what the analyzer came up with...

1 Margaret Atwood
2 David Foster Wallace
3 H.G. Wells
4 Neil Gaiman
5 H.P. Lovecraft
6 David Foster Wallace
7 Dan Brown
8 Daniel Defoe
9 Mario Puzo

[kentauros]

2. I haven't been in the Lounge in a couple of weeks, so I missed it.

I'd say it's not very accurate or not very good at "analyzing" then, if you got that many different results. I was surprised, too, to get different results from my blog postings, but not so much from my writing. There is a difference in my style between fiction and yap.

Oh well; it was interesting while it lasted... :)

[nuxvomica]

3. I think it's still pretty interesting

My HP Lovecraft chapter centered around two very different and unrelated objects that are ancient and strange, so I may have fallen into Lovecraftian descriptions of them. The HG Wells chapter focuses on the technology of the story, and I may have conjured Wells to get through that. The Dan Brown chapter has seventeen short scenes. :)

[kentauros]

6. I could try it that way, too.

Although my novel isn't finished and has plenty of "notations" that might be misinterpreted. I may still try though and see what it makes of things like (XXXXX XXXXXX) placeholders until I think up full names and the like ;)

I take it your novel is science fiction? It also sounds like it would be a good story to read with the variety of authors listed :)

[nuxvomica]

9. Yes it's sci-fi

I posted part of a scene from Chapter 6 (in the style of David Foster Wallace, supposedly) elsewhere in this forum:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=216&topic_id=6232&mesg_id=6235

You're obviously taking some care with creating the character names. I just used whatever I came up with at the time the character appears in the story. For the I-Write-Like, you could substitute some of the names in your sig. :D

[kentauros]

10. Hmmm, I should plug some Eddie Izzard transcripts into it

and see what happens. I hope I don't break it

I haven't checked out your sample yet, but will in a bit here.

Names are very important to me, even if my current main characters seem to have rather 'normal' names. I also want them to have 'normal' full names, and that's where I get stuck. Luckily, that only comes up once or twice, and I don't mind if the reader forgets the full name. When it comes to foreign names (and I have a few) I look up name-meanings in reference to what the character is like. Americans, for the most part, don't give name-meanings much weight, either in real life or stories, and my American or English-speaking character-names pretty well reflect that. So, I probably couldn't get away with a character named "Slut Bunwalla" :P

Whenever I have something to post from my novel, I will. I'm focusing on djinn, magic and combining spiritual concepts into that (new age stuff) and I only hope I don't end up with a mishmash that doesn't work or read well. Plots are sometimes troublesome to me for some reason...

I'll go read your excerpt now :)

[kentauros]

11. Okay, Slut Bunwalla, I mean, Eddie Izzard is...

David Foster Wallace! Who knew? :D

and it didn't break the page, either...

http://www.auntiemomo.com/cakeordeath/d2ktranscription.html

[kentauros]

12. I enjoyed that.

I also felt like you did a great job giving the impression of "old-English" style characterizations. I don't know if that was your intent, but the first two had that feel, as if even in a future time or high-tech reality that they were out of a past time period. Kind of like how things were done with two of the societies in the Stargate series (the Jaffa and the warriors of the Ori.)

Your passage also reminded me of a death scene from Jack Chalker's Well World series. If you haven't read it, I won't reveal it ;)

[nuxvomica]

14. I need to find that Well World scene to compare the mechanics

I should've explained that the setting is 4,000 years ago in North Africa and the Old-English effect is to make the speech sound archaic. It's about an advanced technology developed in a world that is otherwise as primitive as other societies of the time. Think of it like ancient steampunk only it's more like gravitypunk. Interesting note about Stargate as that is an influence I hadn't realized, though there are no aliens in the story.

You really oughta post some excerpts of your novel so we can all get a taste.

[jotsy]

5. Quite a list!

A nice mix of classic and contemporary. Hard not to feel some envy of your diverse channeling! Way to go.

[jotsy]

4. Analyzed passage posted here.

J.K. Rowling was the only name to come up.

The site in and of itself looks to be another good nudge for me, thanks.

[kentauros]

7. You're welcome :)

I should use it the same way as I tend to get unfocused and work on things I can't sell...

You'll have to post some of yours if it's like J.K. Rowling ;)

[jotsy]

8. See Adolescent Apparitions, posted in this forum...couple of weeks ago?

It's just a little something, written as an exercise to be critiqued here.

[kentauros]

13. I liked yours, too.

I probably am the last one you'd want critiquing anything as good descriptions are one of my weak points. And yet, I've had people say I described things so well that they felt they were there. So, I'm my worst critic ;)

I got a similar feeling as I read your bit, that you described it well. I did notice some run-on sentences, but have since read passages of other people's stories that used them as well. So, I don't know if this is accepted practice now or what. I tend to break things up or use a semi-colon, but that's just me and how I was taught. If the rules have changed (and they do change, such as one space before sentences) then I'll adapt :)

So, does this mean I need to post something around here now, too?

[jotsy]

15. Don't be shy now.

But don't feel obliged if you're not comfy either.

It's all good. :9