9/6/10
I recently learned of a website that purports to analyze a sample of your writing and identify which famous author you write like. Simply paste in a few paragraphs of your writing, click, and receive an instant result.
Well, who could resist? I pasted in a scene from The Secret Confessions of Anne Shakespeare and found I write like…Shakespeare? Kit Marlowe? Ben Jonson? No, Anne Rice. Interesting, because when I tried another scene from the same novel, my literary style now resembles James Joyce.
I then submitted several paragraphs from The Kingsley House, and lo and behold!, I’m channeling Margaret Mitchell. An analysis of a scene from How (Not) to Have a Perfect Wedding reveals that my alter-author is Stephen King.
Finally, a scene from my new novel-in-progress. Memo to all publishers looking for the next mega-bestseller: the writing style of my new book puts me right up there with Dan Brown.
Too funny! You don’t have to be a professional writer; almost any piece of prose will do. So if you need a silly break, try it out at http://iwl.me/ I’ve had mine–time to get back to work.