I write like... loads of people

[lobelia321]

Thanks to lady_of_asheru, I discovered http://www.iwl.me. Here you can paste in bits of your fic and find out like whom you write.

Well, apparently I write like

• Margaret Atwood ('Nemesis', Rooney/Ronaldo rough sex fic)

• Annie Rice ('Desert Prince', Arabian Nightesque Orli AU)

• William Gibson ('One Kiss Later', SGA April Bingham-centric fic)

I stopped there. I realised if I pasted in 28 fics, I'd probably get 28 authors.

What does this betoken?

Ludicrousness of such a site? Chameleon-like slipperiness of my style? Total non-originality of me? Marvellous pastichey and post-moderney adaptability of prose? Stupidity of teh internet?

I tend towards the first and last. Heh. (Annie Rice, indeed. *snorts* Can you write like someone you've never read??)

ETA: Also, Dilip! *swoons over own icon*

Comments

[miso-no-tsuki.livejournal.com]

I've seen posts that suggest that the site is linked to a vanity publishing house that will generously offer to immortalise your amazingly (insert author of choice)-like prose for a *small fee*!
So yes first and last would be about right. One of my friends pasted in prose by the actual authors. Apparently Stephanie Meyer writes like Ernest Hemingway.
Sparkly blood and dust anyone?

[tvillingar.livejournal.com]

I've seen similar posts and decided to test this with writing nonsense. "aselkfja jöaäsöoj asdkhjjh" suggests my writing style would be similar to James Joyce's. I think not. ;)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Not like Stephenie Meyer then? *guffaws*

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Stephenie Meyer writes like Ernest Hemingway...!!!!

Priceless!!!!

This is gold. Sparkly gold, of course.

[viva-gloria.livejournal.com]

Yep, I got a different author for each fic I pasted in! Am working on the basis that this means post-modern flexibility not lack of actual voice.

And yes, you can totally write like someone you've never read:
- there are only so many ways you can put language together, and this isn't a very sophisticated matching algorithm
- you can write like people who have read the person you write like (if that makes any sense at all: have I turned into, I dunno, Dan Brown?)
- quite a few of the authors on that site are themselves pastiching or hommaging or whatever.

What did surprise me is that the five authors I scored were all male.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Ah, Gloria, we've been had. *sighs* This is what miso_no_tsuki commented to me:


I've seen posts that suggest that the site is linked to a vanity publishing house that will generously offer to immortalise your amazingly (insert author of choice)-like prose for a *small fee*!

One of my friends pasted in prose by the actual authors. Apparently Stephanie Meyer writes like Ernest Hemingway.

!!!