There's an online oojamaflip I've discovered which purports to examine any writing you paste into it and tell you which famous author you write like. Obviously I was eager to play along...
Firstly I submitted Chapter 1 from my current in-progress novel...
Really?
I've never read any Doctorow, but I understand he's well-regarded. I wonder if Chapter 2 will bring the same assessment...
Oh.
I suppose I should take that as a compliment, but it's not really what I was aiming for. A little less mindbending, I think.
How about my previous novel, Imaginary Friends...?
Bwahahaha! So you're basically saying my writing is complex to the point of being impenetrable, right? Jeez... no wonder I can't get an agent.
Let's try a short story instead. How about From The Crack Of The Vinyl To The Hiss Of The Tape?
What? Gimme a break - that was hardly cyberpunk.
Let's try Shooting People Is Good...
You know, that's the first one I can see. I do sometimes go for a Palahniuk vibe on my short stories.
Let's try I Can Read You Like A Book, one of the most Palahniuk-influenced stories I've written...
Open the pod bay doors, Hal, I smell a rat.
Let's try something with no literary pretensions whatsoever. How about a radio ad script from my day job...?
I write like
David Foster Wallace
David Foster Wallace
I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!
DFW is turning in his grave.
It's not complete bollocks though. When I fed in the opening chapter from Stephen King's Bag Of Bones, it identified him straight away. Likewise it was spot on Bram Stoker, Jonathan Swift and Arthur Conan Doyle. But a chunk of Nick Hornby's Juliet, Naked was tagged as Foster Wallace again (sorry Nick, you apparently write radio ads too) while it also confused Douglas Coupland with King, Joseph Heller with JD Salinger, Emily Bronte with Joyce and Dean Koontz with Dan Brown ('ouch!' for Koontz).
As for yesterday's blogpost about the wrong knickers...?
Quite.
Test your own writing and let me know who you write like.
This week's Thoughtballoons character is Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot, The Penguin - waugh! You can read my one-page story here. According to I Write Like, it's very HP Lovecraft...!
