Friday, July 16, 2010

The Bonehead Also Rises

Cormac just posted a link , "I write like".  It is a program that analyzes one's writing and spits out a famous author's name who best represents your style.  I punched in one of my 250 word stories, "Climax".  It spit out a result that surprised me.  Ernest was never one of my favorite reads.  I enjoyed his Nick Adams stories and tolerated his novels, but never really got into him.  I did however love the way he wrote.  He packed so much into so few words.  He was the master of brevity for sure.

Cormac did not see the resemblance of his writing to that of Robert Louis Stevenson. I don't see any resemblance to Ernest either.  But then this site wants to "help" me get published.  It would not make sense to tell me I write like JJ Wordbungler whose one million handwritten words were rejected by every publisher on this hemisphere and most on the next and then died  in some back alley hovel with his pen still clamped between his forefinger and thumb.  Telling me the truth would certainly put a damper on my enthusiasm.  But then the site only states "I write like", not  "I write as well as".  


I write like
Ernest Hemingway
I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Later................................

6 comments:

muddleglum said...

Try writing a political rant and submitting it. Let your writing flow and don't pull any punches.

BTW, I agree with you about ol' Papa Ernie and I haven't noticed your style being much like his. I enjoy your style -- probably because I sense your humor—you can laugh at yourself.

Cormac Brown said...

"It would not make sense to tell me I write like JJ Wordbungler"

Agreed, though I think they should place people closer to the real-life counterparts or the ones that they aspire to. I could picture your Friday Flash about the man who wound up in Florida Keys, as slightly Hemingwayesque.

Randal Graves said...

The worst would be "you write like AP copy."

Mauigirl said...

Very interesting, will have to try it! I'm with you on Hemingway; never "got" what was so great about him. Maybe if he were around today and blogging I'd like him more; I always felt as if his plots were not character-driven enough. Too much "We all sat around drinking at the cafe all day and then ordered some food."

Anonymous said...

I did this too, and was a little miffed, I put in a few pieces, two of them came back with Dan Brown, and one with Stephanie Meyer (oh god shoot me now)!

pfft...

PipeTobacco said...

MaCrum:

I will trade you your Hemmingway for either of my two... Dickens or Nabokov.

PipeTobacco
http://frumpyprofessor.blogspot.com