I found an interesting web site, I Write Like, that claims to analyze a writers style and compare it to famous writers. I copied a few paragraphs from one of my very first posts and sent them into the ether. My early writing is similar in style to David Foster Wallace. I put in a sample of my latest post and it came back the same.
Of course consistency is the hobgoblin of foolish minds, so just to be sure, I picked a post in the middle. Off it went and I was thrilled to know, for that time at least, I wrote like Stephanie Meyer. Have your style analyzed at http://iwl.me/.
The sad thing is that David Foster Wallace suffered from depression and, in 2008 at age 46, took his own life. Stephanie Meyer is only 37 years old and wrote the "Twilight Saga" which is currently popular in the movies, but it is about vampires or something. I haven't seen any of the movies made from her novels.
I suppose if you check your writing style at that web site, you may be pleased with the results...or not. In fact, I am pleased because both of these writers are (or were) successful and famous. I did not start out writing this blog with any writing style in mind, I am just writing in my own style. I could have done worse!
The first movie from a Stephanie Meyer novel was Twilight in 2008. Let's take a look at the cast list. There are some very famous names! Rathbone, Welch, B. Burke, Bellamy! Well, it's Jackson Rathbone (no relation to Basil), Michael Welch (no relation to Raquel), Billy Burke (a man and no relation to Billie), and Ned Bellamy (no relation to Ralph).
Bit players usually appear toward the bottom of the cast list on IMDb, so let's look there.
Brianna Womick is a pretty girl with 14 movie credits. All appear to be bit parts, but she is lucky to be included as a crew member of the Enterprise in Star Trek from 2009, and was a dancer in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button a year earlier.
Rana Morrison has no pictures on IMDb, but it lists her as appearing in 42 roles. She started out as a surfer chick in Point Break in 1991 and has credit in quite a few great (or at least, good) movies. She was in Speed (1994), Braveheart (1995), The Matrix (1999), Coyote Ugly and Miss Congeniality (both in 2000). After that she appears to get some bigger parts, but none with top billing.
Players in this class are starting their careers. There are others in the cast as well, who have small parts and only a few credits so far. I think they will be worth watching to see how far they can take it. They were a part of Twilight, that won 23 awards, including five from the MTV Movie Awards, reflecting the opinion of their generation. They added their spark, their own coloring to it.
By the way, the previous four paragraphs of this blog emulate the style of Margaret Atwood. She is an award winning poet and SciFi writer. I think that web site is trying to make me feel good.
I just ran all my posts that are currently on my home page through it. It just looks for keywords. My review of The Pornographers, which had a father/daughter incest gave me Vladamir Nabokov. When I ran The Wedding Banquet which mentions homosexuality I got Hemingway. At least it could have looked for sexist language, unnecessary scenery descriptions, and Gary Cooper before it gave me Hemingway.
ReplyDeleteHemmingway is good enough for me! I think you should add it to your resume. "I've been told my writing style is similar to Hemmingway."
ReplyDeleteMy post on Pete the Pup shows the accuracy of info on the Internet. Since it's inception, the Internet has always been a place to play. Anything serious found here is simply an accident.