# I (allegedly) Write Like... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 15, 2010, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-allegedly-write-like/546828 "2010-07-15T20:18:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-allegedly-write-like/546828/41 "2010-07-16T04:53:48Z")
David Foster Wallace :dubious: That can’t be right, let me try something a little longer. Dan Brown ☹ ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-allegedly-write-like/546828/42 "2010-07-16T05:17:04Z")
From _Tit-Bits From All the Most Interesting Books, Periodicals and Newspapers in the World, Dec. 3, 1881_ at [http://www.futilitycloset.com/](http://www.futilitycloset.com/) > [@](#): > > A woman proceeding by the elevated railroad, by the side of the Niagara Falls, asked the engine-driver, ‘If the rope broke, where she would go to?’ The driver told her that ‘If one broke they would have the other one to hold them.’ The woman then said, ‘Well, driver, if that broke, where should I go to?’ ‘Well,’ said the driver, ‘it just depends upon what sort of a life you have led.’ - Leo Tolstoy From _La Belle Dame sans Merci_, Keats > [@](#): > > She took me to her elfin grot > And there she wept, and sigh’d fill sore, > And there I shut her wild wild eyes > With kisses four. > > And there she lulled me asleep, > And there I dream’d—Ah! woe betide! > The latest dream I ever dream’d > On the cold hill’s side. > > I saw pale kings and princes too, > Pale warriors, death-pale were they all; > They cried—“La Belle Dame sans Merci > Hath thee in thrall!” - James Joyce From _The Devil’s Dictionary_, Ambrose Bierce > [@](#): > > RABBLE, n. In a republic, those who exercise a supreme authority tempered by fraudulent elections. The rabble is like the sacred Simurgh, of Arabian fable–omnipotent on condition that it do nothing. (The word is Aristocratese, and has no exact equivalent in our tongue, but means, as nearly as may be, “soaring swine.”) > > RACK, n. An argumentative implement formerly much used in persuading devotees of a false faith to embrace the living truth. As a call to the unconverted the rack never had any particular efficacy, and is now held in light popular esteem. > > RANK, n. Relative elevation in the scale of human worth. > > He held at court a rank so high > That other noblemen asked why. > “Because,” 'twas answered, “others lack > His skill to scratch the royal back.” > > Aramis Jukes > RANSOM, n. The purchase of that which neither belongs to the seller, nor can belong to the buyer. The most unprofitable of investments. > > RAPACITY, n. Providence without industry. The thrift of power. - H. P. Lovecraft ---
**Author:** ![williambaskerville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f14d63/32.png) [@williambaskerville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/williambaskerville)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-allegedly-write-like/546828/43 "2010-07-16T06:14:21Z")
I pasted in a very snotty letter I wrote to local officials about planning bylaws, and got HP Lovecraft (this may be realistic :- from the officials’ response, they had indeed concluded I was an eldritch horror dwelling at the frozen edge of the Universe, that the minds of men could scarcely envisage). I pasted in some published text from a book I cowrote for McGraw Hill, and that was apparently me in my Charles Dickens mode. I pasted in some JK Rowling (choosing a passage with no character names :- don’t want to make it easy for them) and in fairness, JK Rowling writes like JK Rowling. Agreed, it’s mostly nonsense. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-allegedly-write-like/546828/44 "2010-07-16T08:58:55Z")
H.P. Lovecraft Issac Azimov Edgar Allen Poe Margaret Atwood David Foster Wallace … I am thinking this thing really just gives you a random author. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-allegedly-write-like/546828/45 "2010-07-16T10:29:45Z")
I tried: “I do not like it on a train. I do not like it in the rain.” and it said I write like Ernest Hemingway. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-allegedly-write-like/546828/46 "2010-07-16T10:40:01Z")
Pasting a couple of recent SDMB posts into it, it said I write like Margaret Atwood and David Foster Wallace. ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-allegedly-write-like/546828/47 "2010-07-16T11:11:15Z")
> [@Cazzle](#): > > I tried: “I do not like it on a train. I do not like it in the rain.” and it said I write like Ernest Hemingway. Bwahahahaha ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-allegedly-write-like/546828/48 "2010-07-16T11:25:10Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > Random words from a list of words will get James Joyce. I just laughed out loud - I pasted 3 paragraphs from a story i’d written (no stream of consciousness whatsoever) and was told I write like James Joyce! ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-allegedly-write-like/546828/49 "2010-07-16T13:50:49Z")
I got Lovecraft, Lovecraft, Lovecraft, and again Lovecraft. I do not think it is random and I do **not** write like Lovecraft. Please say I don’t. Could I get a little Steinbeck ova here? ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-allegedly-write-like/546828/50 "2010-07-16T15:23:54Z")
> [@Scheidt-Hoch](#): > > I just laughed out loud - I pasted 3 paragraphs from a story i’d written (no stream of consciousness whatsoever) and was told I write like James Joyce! I submitted a sonnet I’d written, and it also thought I was Joyce. ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-allegedly-write-like/546828/51 "2010-07-16T15:41:30Z")
Two parts of an e-mail I just wrote to an ex-girlfriend, then the entire text, yielded Stephen King, Ian Fleming, and David Foster Wallace. A recent Facebook update gives me Leo Tolstoy. “The Development Cycle of Formal Mentoring Programs,” a section I wrote for a massive group project recently, channels HP Lovecraft. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-allegedly-write-like/546828/52 "2010-07-16T16:13:25Z")
> [@Student\_Driver](#): > > Two parts of an e-mail I just wrote to an ex-girlfriend, then the entire text, yielded Stephen King, Ian Fleming, and David Foster Wallace. Sounds like it was a hell of a relationship while it lasted. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-allegedly-write-like/546828/53 "2010-07-16T17:03:53Z")
HP Lovecraft, Neil Gaiman, and UK LeGuin for me. I think it’s keying off key vocabulary words: the piece it compared to Lovecraft contained the phrase “gaunt gothic citadel,” and the LeGuin piece mentioned dragons. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-allegedly-write-like/546828/54 "2010-07-16T17:18:50Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > H.P. Lovecraft > Issac Azimov > Edgar Allen Poe > Margaret Atwood > David Foster Wallace > > … I am thinking this thing really just gives you a random author. Could be, but it ruled that part of a David Foster Wallace essay was written in the style of David Foster Wallace. Random **Vinyl Turnip** posts apparently resembled the writing of George Orwell, William Gibson, and Margaret Atwood. If it had said **Vinyl Turnip** writes in the style of… my real name… \*then \*I’d have been impressed. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Booker\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/71c47a/32.png) [@Happy\_Booker\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Booker_1)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-allegedly-write-like/546828/55 "2010-07-16T17:22:47Z")
A particularly gibberish filled consultant’s report hit my inbox day before yesterday. I loaded a couple of representative sentences into I Write Like and it yielded a similarity with Dan Brown. Someone should be offended. I’m just not sure who. ---
**Author:** ![Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Chitwood)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-allegedly-write-like/546828/56 "2010-07-16T17:38:37Z")
That site does a tremendous disservice to David Foster Wallace, and it makes me sad. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-allegedly-write-like/546828/57 "2010-07-16T18:09:53Z")
I had eight representative samples handy from eight favorist novelists and fed them in. The site scored 3 out of 8: Twain --\> Twain Conrad -\> Rowling Hemingway -\> Hemingway Kerouac -\> Dan Brown J Joyce -\> J Joyce Le Carre -\> J Joyce Heller -\> Wodehouse Dostoevsky -\> Tolstoy I pasted in part of the preface from my soon-to-be published book (don’t ask) and I came up as … David Foster Wallace. (Is that good or bad?) ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-allegedly-write-like/546828/58 "2010-07-16T18:19:09Z")
> [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](#): > > That site does a tremendous disservice to David Foster Wallace, and it makes me sad. Wonder if he saw the site before he… you know. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-allegedly-write-like/546828/59 "2010-07-16T19:08:57Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. And sometimes dead is bettah! Hey, you write like Stephen King too! ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-allegedly-write-like/546828/60 "2010-07-16T20:46:57Z")
> [@williambaskerville](#): > > I pasted in a very snotty letter I wrote to local officials about planning bylaws, and got HP Lovecraft (this may be realistic :- from the officials’ response, they had indeed concluded I was an eldritch horror dwelling at the frozen edge of the Universe, that the minds of men could scarcely envisage).\ Cool. > [@Sigmagirl](#): > > I got Lovecraft, Lovecraft, Lovecraft, and again Lovecraft. I do not think it is random and I do **not** write like Lovecraft. > > Please say I don’t. Could I get a little Steinbeck ova here? I thought Steinbeck was a boy? > [@VinylTurnip](#): > > \ > If it had said **Vinyl Turnip** writes in the style of… my real name… \*then \*I’d have been impressed. I’d be scared. One thing’s come out of this; I’ll probably read “Infinite Jest” by David Foster Wallace because of this. Though, mind you, if it’s pretentious crap that only critics could love, I won’t finish it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-allegedly-write-like/546828.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-allegedly-write-like/546828.md?page=4)