{"id":577,"date":"2010-07-18T12:41:28","date_gmt":"2010-07-18T19:41:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dresan.com\/blog\/?p=577"},"modified":"2010-07-19T21:35:26","modified_gmt":"2010-07-20T04:35:26","slug":"i-write-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/18\/i-write-like\/","title":{"rendered":"I write like…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanks to Elf Sternberg<\/a>, I’ve caught the meme to analyze your writing style with the automated tool on the I Write Like website<\/a>. Elf fed in a whole bunch of different stories and found that the tool gave different results based on what stories you feed into it.<\/p>\n

I observed a similar effect. For example, if I feed in the first two chapters of FROST MOON<\/a>, I write like David Foster Wallace<\/a>, author of Infinite Jest<\/a>:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
I write like
David Foster Wallace<\/a><\/div>\n

I Write Like<\/em> by M\u00e9moires, Mac journal software<\/a>. Analyze your writing!<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

However, feed in FROST MOON<\/a> chapters 3 and 4, and I become James Joyce<\/a>, author of Ulysses<\/a>:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
I write like
James Joyce<\/a><\/div>\n

I Write Like<\/em> by M\u00e9moires, Mac journal software<\/a>. Analyze your writing!<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

How complimentary! (And apropos, given that Ulysses is one of the favorite books of Cinnamon Frost, a major character in the SKINDANCER books). <\/p>\n

However, when I put in something completely different, like my science fiction story “Sibling Rivalry<\/a>“, I get … perhaps unsurprisingly … something completely different:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
I write like
Arthur C. Clarke<\/a><\/div>\n

I Write Like<\/em> by M\u00e9moires, Mac journal software<\/a>. Analyze your writing!<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

I’m speechless. I think I will go out on that note.<\/p>\n

No. That’s not quite honest. I have to do one more.<\/p>\n

From the current draft of SPELLPUNK: HEX CODE, narrated by Cinnamon Frost, broken English and all:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
I write like
Margaret Atwood<\/a><\/div>\n

I Write Like<\/em> by M\u00e9moires, Mac journal software<\/a>. Analyze your writing!<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Well. I still feel highly complimented: Margaret Atwood<\/a>, author of The Handmaid’s Tale<\/a>, is “among the most-honoured authors of fiction<\/a> in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award and Prince of Asturias award for Literature, has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize five times, winning once, and has been a finalist for the Governor General’s Award seven times, winning twice.” Wow. What company.<\/p>\n

Not sure what that says when the most award winning author of recent memory was the best match for a chapter written entirely in broken English. Maybe … keep doing what I’m doing?<\/p>\n

Or maybe, just maybe, don’t put too much stock into computer algorithms.<\/p>\n

-the Centaur<\/p>\n

UPDATE: thanks to the magic of comments, I’ve found the I Actually Write Like<\/a> website, a “highly advanced statistical analysis tool which was actually genuinely written by a guy with a real PhD which has some statistics,” which gives this verdict on SPELLPUNK: HEX CODE:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
I actually<\/b> write like
an adolescent goth after a heavy night on the absinthe<\/span><\/div>\n

I Actually Write Like<\/em> Analyze your writing!<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

NOW we’re talking! And STILL highly accurate! Let’s try FROST MOON again:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
I actually<\/b> write like
a lolcat<\/span><\/div>\n

I Actually Write Like<\/em> Analyze your writing!<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Even more accurate! Actually, since the Cinnamon Frost speech is like a lolcat, and FROST MOON is gothy, I strongly suspect a random number generator somewhere in there. \ud83d\ude42 However (after a brief application of the scientific method<\/a>) results seem to be consistent from run to run. That intertest reliability<\/a> suggests a deterministic algorithm<\/a>. HOWEVER (after a brief application of a sources of power analysis<\/a>) extremely small changes to the text result … deleting the first word … result in completely different outcomes, so I suspect the text is being hashed<\/a> into a fortune file<\/a>. Changing the final word addition to the first word still shows this sensitivity to initial conditions<\/a>, ruling out an analogue of the primacy effect<\/a> caused by taking the head of the file<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Procrastination. It’s a wonderful thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thanks to Elf Sternberg, I’ve caught the meme to analyze your writing style with the automated tool on the I Write Like website. Elf fed in a whole bunch of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6,4,56],"class_list":["post-577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dakota-frost","tag-dragon-writers","tag-procrastination","ratio-2-1","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":593,"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577\/revisions\/593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}