So do I write like Vonnegut, Hawking, Harrison or Clarke?

So there’s this new sorta-craze going around the Interwebz, in the form of the writing comparison website I Write Like. The premise: You copy-paste a chunk of your writing, anything more than a few paragraphs for the sake of obtaining “reliable results”, then hit the conveniently named “Analyze” button. Within moments, the service displays the name of whatever prominent writer whose writings your own style most resembles.

I’d already heard a fair amount about I Write Like (let’s just say that Roger Ebert is not a fan) and wasn’t expecting anything truly in the realm of accuracy (or “reliability”) when I decided to use it for the heck of it. And so, whom do I Write Like?

If we analyze the last three paragraphs from this Fail Quote blog post from yesterday:

I write like
Kurt Vonnegut

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

How about the last three paragraphs from this post regarding the failures of scientific education in US schools, also from yesterday:

I write like
Stephen King

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

All right, then; how about some of my actual creative writing? From Chapter 12: ‘Humans and Animals’ of Inhuman:

I write like
Harry Harrison

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Last one: Again from Inhuman, this time the very first chapter, ‘Escape and Arrival’:

I write like
Arthur C. Clarke

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

So, apparently, my writing style is the bastard child of the creators of Breakfast of Champions, Pet Semetary, Flash Gordon and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

… Not sure what to say about that, other than that reliability may not be I Write Like’s strongest asset.

Tags: I Write Like • Kurt Vonnegut • Stephen King • Harry Harrison • Arthur C. Clarke