In the interest of self-obsession and validating my delusions of grandeur, I followed a friend’s facebook link to I Write Like, a site that analyses one’s writing and compares it to famous writers. My friend got Shakespeare, not bad. I was sure I’d get Mark Twain or Douglas Adams, my all-time heroes. I got:
Cory Doctrorow? Who’s that then? … quick wikipedia search later… NOICE!
Still, I was determined I could rig this Kobayashi Maru to affect the outcome. Besides, sampling more pieces would net a better overall result, right? I mean, I am being extremely scientific here. And it is for prosperity’s sake.
According to I Write Like, my novel netted me:
Dan Brown. Meh. I don’t mean to be flippant, it’s just this scientific study wasn’t giving me the results I wanted.
From my blogs, a collection of shorts, and a couple reviews the predominant answer was:
Chuck Palahniuk. SUH-weet! Not Twain nor Adams, but a comparison I could live with.
Some of the responses that were a nice ego boost were: William Gibson, Steven King, Arthur C. Clark and, God knows why, James Joyce. All things considered, though I couldn’t get the answer I wanted, I did end up in quite an awesome company of writers, who, if I were to get but a smidge of their success and talent, would make me very happy man.
Fingers crossed.
