"i write like..." program

I put in baby sounds and got Chuck Palahnuik.

At least I know whose novels I'm not going to be reading any time soon.

 

Well played, well played

 

Here's a wee challenge to test my theory that the programme looks for specific words, and the result has nothing to do with your writing style. I re-submitted this one of yours, substituting another word for captain, private and 'sir.' (All words that would be used extensively in Stevenson's Treasure Island.) And with those words changed—you get JK Rowling!

Don't believe me? Have a go yourself.

Spoiler

“Fred,” the teacher stared at the man's's glistening grey eyes. He felt his heart fluttered, but he kept his composure. Know your station, he reminded himself. He allowed a smile, “You've fought well today.” He clapped a hand on the young man's shoulder. “I'll see about recommending to the Board about a promotion.”
The man's mouth dropped open. “A pro-promotion...?”
“Indeed. We need more men like you in the fields, not doing scrab work.” He laughed. “Ah well, at ease. At ease.” He walked to a small liquor cabinet, drew out two small cups and a Jack Daniels whiskey. After he poured the content, he gave Fred a cup. “To your future career!” he bellowed as he raised the glass. Fred nervously raised his and they both sipped.

 

This is too much fun. I just entered the following, which is taken from our old first grade reader entitled Dick, Jane and Sally. Some of you will remember these immortal words:

Look, Jane, look. See Baby. Oh, oh, oh. Funny, funny Baby. Come, Puff. Come and go up. Go up, up, up. Come down, down, down. Go up and down.

Well, apparently that's how JD Salinger writes! Okay, I suppose I can see the connection, but I seem to remember him being a lot more fun than D, J and S.

 

Stephen King, Dan Brown and James Joyce. And sometimes H.P. Lovecraft.

... how?

 

I don't want to be the conspiracy guy but.....could it be the machine is having you on?

D,J and S? (Dick, Jane and Sally)
JDS? (JD Salinger)

DJS/JDS....it's become self aware.

 

And Dr Seuss apparently ALSO writes like JD Salinger.

I sat there with Sally. We sat there, we two. And I said, "How I wish we had something to do." Too wet to go out and too cold to play ball. So we sat in the house. We did nothing at all.

Okay, I'll stop now....

 

I got @jannert....

............
.......................

 

Started doing my novel hoping to see a pattern like @GuardianWynn did.

Chapter 1: Neil Gaiman
Chapter 2: H.P.Lovecraft
Chapter 3: J.R.R Tolkien
Chapter 4: Anne Rice
Chapter 5: J.K.Rowling
Chapter 6: Ursula K. Le Guin
Chapter 7: H.P.Lovecraft
Chapter 8: Rudyard Kipling
Chapter 9: Oscar Wilde
Chapter 10: Rudyard Kipling
Chapter 11: Oscar Wilde
Chapter 12: Dan Brown
Chapter 13: Cory Doctorow
Chapter 14: H.G.Wells
Chapter 15: Margaret Atwood
Chapter 16: Leo Tolstoy
Chapter 17: Harry Harrison
Chapter 18: L. Frank Baum

At this point I gave up. I've put in half my novel and it's given me no author more than twice.

 

Apparently Joseph Conrad writes like H.G Wells and George Orwell, but not like himself...

 

It's not exactly the most accurate app in the world, to be honest.

 

Depending on what I entered, I got Stephen King, Chuck Palahniuk, Kurt Vonnegut and Margaret Atwood. I conclude that I have my own voice.

 

I posted work from an old RPG of mine and got Dan Brown. (Aw man)

Then I posted a more recent work and got Cory Doctorow (Never read him yet)

Then posted a current WIP and got Stephen King (which is cool, I can live with that)

And finally got James Joyce from a thing I wrote earlier this year (Which was unexpected)

So guess that means I write like me! Though as jannert pointed out, I'm pretty sure its basing it off word analyzing.

 

I just tried another chapter of my novel and got George Orwell. Apparently, we're all inconsistent!

 

Soooooooooooo

I typed in (did it very randomly, no editing or focus)

Spoiler: What I typed

I am Batman. I am Batman. I Batman. I Batman I Batman. I am Batman. I am Batman. I am Batman. I Batman. I am Batman. I am Batman.I am Batman. I am Batman. I Batman. I Batman I Batman. I am Batman. I am Batman. I am Batman. I Batman. I am Batman. I am Batman.I am Batman. I am Batman. I Batman. I Batman I Batman. I am Batman. I am Batman. I am Batman. I Batman. I am Batman. I am Batman.I am Batman. I am Batman. I Batman. I Batman I Batman. I am Batman. I am Batman. I am Batman. I Batman. I am Batman. I am Batman.I am Batman. I am Batman. I Batman. I Batman I Batman. I am Batman. I am Batman. I am Batman. I Batman. I am Batman. I am Batman.

And got.

Spoiler: Batman?

I write like
Agatha Christie

 

I just went through the posts from the RPG I've contributed to most on this site: 6 Cory Doctorow, 1 Chuck Palahniuk, 1 Dan Brown

I was apparently quite consistent in that game

 

I put in several sections of my most recent sci-fi story (which I personally think is terrible) and got Dan Brown on almost every section. Maybe it's better than I thought.

 

One of mine got Dan Brown. Should we start a support group?

 

Maybe Dan Brown is who the program resorts to when it can't match the text to anyone else?

 

I have a feeling this program doesn't actually do any analysis. It just picks a random name from a list of famous writers, no matter what you put in.

 

Let's tell ourselves that

I think it picks out certain words and matches them to the authors. When I put in a romance-y passage I got Margaret Mitchell, then I put in a suspense-y scene and got Dan Brown. Maybe it also includes sentence length and amount of dialogue and things.

 

I learned something else about it.

I put my entire novel in at once. Got Douglas Adams.
Yet when I put them in seperately 22 were Stephan King and only one was douglas Adams. The first one wa s Douglas Adams so I tested a theory. I copied my novel from chapter 16 and onward. 16 being a mark twian one. The novel was then called Mark Twain. My theory? It only uses the first few paragraphs. Though considering 22 of 35 were Stephan King. That still seemed interesting. Not sure if that is good or bad. Still I find it really funny that every chapter featuring one character in particular was rated as a different author. lol

 

I think it takes only superficial things, like use of adverbs or technical/scientific language. I don't think it's a complex algorithm that analyses style in any way. You can have it test only a few words, what can you really get from that?

 

I tested that by putting in the same sample in at a few addition times to see if it said something different. Never said anything different.

 

I just changed the names of the characters in my first chapter to Lord of the Rings names, Frodo, Pippin, Gandalf etc

That change meant the writing style has changed from Neil Gaiman to Stephen King