Subject: So I put in one of my stories from NaNoWriMo
Author:
Posted on: 2022-07-12 07:51:50 UTC
The original fic to be precise (for those not aware I work on 5 'fics at once during NaNoWriMo, aiming to write 10k in each)
And it's come back saying I write like Dan Brown...
I'll admit that I haven't really polished up the bit of the fic I put in so it might change once that's been done, but as it is I'm not entirely sure if I'm happy or not.
Nova
I Write Like, a site where you can feed any English text into and find out which famous author's writing style the text is closest to. I fed a few of my stuff in there and I got Charles Dickens and Margaret Atwood among many others.
I put in Maya Sue, and I write like...J K Rowling. I can’t say that surprises me, though. It’s Harry Potter mission.
I like the Harry Potter series, but as for Rowling...I can’t say I particularly care about her opinions or writings beyond that. shrugs
—Ls
...I write like Harry Harrison.
Who?
—Ls
I fed the thing various excerpts from The World Without Authors, and here are the results:
Fun fact: I never read anything by any of them. I cannot even claim theywere influences in me forming my writing style!
...I got Mark Twain.
Not that I'm complaining but that feels wrong somehow, haha.
The original fic to be precise (for those not aware I work on 5 'fics at once during NaNoWriMo, aiming to write 10k in each)
And it's come back saying I write like Dan Brown...
I'll admit that I haven't really polished up the bit of the fic I put in so it might change once that's been done, but as it is I'm not entirely sure if I'm happy or not.
Nova
Interesting, because I have no idea who that is. Guess I have some new books to check out!
Specifically, the sensual-to-explicit slash fics.
even the bit where I straight up made Thorin quote Mr Darcy, and I even took out the blatant references to Hobbits and whatnot. I got Mark Twain.
Honestly, I think this AI needs a bit of updating. It hasn't gotten any new authors to compare to since the last time I ran into it, in like... 2013, haha. I get the feeling that any allusions to magic tend to immediately give you JKR as a result, because somehow my original worldbuilding regency-fantasy AU for Supernatural and my modern Selkie AU for Yuri on Ice got JKR and the one common denominator between the two is... magic.
Also got Chuck Palahniuk on a very Good Omens-esque angel bureaucracy fic, so. Huh.
Charles Dickens 🤣🤣🤣
I was gonna dump my entire solo-written body of work in there, but it says very long texts are cut before analyzing. Alas. One story at a time, then, and I'll tally the results.
...
Welp, those are my results, then. Later, dudes!
Nah, kidding. That's my early work, and an interlude. It'll be interesting to see what happens as we approach the present and look at missions to various continua.
And, for a laugh:
... Okay, that's less of a laugh than I was expecting. Huh.
Let's look at the results! I submitted a total of 37 samples, counting individual chapters but not the overall story results. Here's the tally of my author hits from highest to lowest:
Fascinating. J. K. Rowling I get—plenty of these sample use lots of words that come up in Rowling's work—but I haven't read enough Vonnegut to say where that's coming from. It's more interesting when you break things down a bit more:
Non-missions only:
Missions only:
Just Skyrim fic:
Just Pern promptfic:
It seems pretty clear most of my JKR-ness is coming from missions, partly because several of them involve the Potterverse and thus naturally hit a lot of the same word choices. Plus the one actual HP fanfic. So, what style do I write most like overall?
A classic science fiction author with a dry sense of humor and keen awareness of both humanity's foibles and its potential.
I can dig it. ^_^
~Neshomeh
RC Hyperbola first.
Mission 1: J.K. Rowling. Uhhhhhhhhhh
Mission 2: J.K. Rowling again. This really worries me...
Mission 4: Cory Doctorow. Okay, so I'm getting better, right?
Mission 5: J.K. Rowling again
As for O'Ryan Keys and crew...
Mission 1: J.K. Rowling again
Interlude 1: Cory Doctorow.
Mission 2: Leo Tolstoy
As an important note, this is a just-for-fun site, and AI can be wrong. Alongside other things, missions 2 and 5 both had Harry Potter badfic. Perhaps the AI notices Harry Potter characters and is like "yep, just like the author" in certain cases. If one gets Rowling, it isn't a 100% bad thing; your writing isn't like Rowling's morally or socially. It's just similar in style. And AI can mess up and that's okay.
The major takeaway is that this isn't a good or bad site. It's just for fun. And just because your missions consistently get a certain author does not mean you have to agree with it. And, everyone's writing style is different to degrees and probably relies on what someone liked as a child.
It's fun, and it's funny to see AI say "yep, My Immortal is like Rowling's own style."
-kA
(Edit: Even funnier when I filed off the names and it still gave Rowling as what the fic is most like.)
This will not tell you if your writing is good or bad, funny or boring. It can tell you if you frequently use words, punctuation, and sentence structures in ways that correspond to another author's use of words, punctuation, and sentence structures, but that's about it. It's worth looking at How it works and Is it accurate? on the site to understand the tool before you draw conclusions based on it.
~Neshomeh
My Immortal: J. K. Rowling O.o
My Inner Life: Ursula K. Le Guin
legolas by laura (whole story): Cory Doctorow
Light and Dark The Adventures of Dark Yagami: Cory Doctorow again
Blood Raining Night: Anne Rice
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH (first and second chapters): J. K. Rowling again (I think this site gives this result to any fic with HP names in it 🤣)
Forbiden Fruit the Tempation of Edward Cullen: Cory Doctorow again
Halflife: Fulllife Consequences: James Joyce (yay, a new name!)
soulless shell (prologue to chapter 2): James Joyce again
I want to see if your hypothesis of "the AI assigns Rowling to any fic with HP characters in it" is true by bleeping those characters out.
I can't recall if My Immortal or Thirty Hs is less like the original canon, so I'll use both.
My Immortal first three chapters with HP characters (no ANs besides in-text ones): Cory Doctorow?!
Hmm. Let's try it with more material.
Same as above, except first seven chapters: Rowling.
Same as above, but the names switched in for more generic names (excluding OCs): Rowling still.
So, I don't think it's the AI auto-assigning names because of the HP Characters appearing from this evidence, but one more HP badfic to go, naturally.
Thirty H's first chapter alone (not the AN one): Rowling
Same as above, but with names genericized (except OCs): Stephen King (oh geez pffff)
Thirty H's first seven chapters: Rowling, as expected.
Same as above, but no HP names: Cory Doctorow
Conclusion: It depends on the material. If it is similar to Rowling's writing style (Both of my Mission Ones, My Immortal), then it brings up Rowling no matter the case (unless I shpxed up and left a couple of HP names in My Immortal), but if it isn't (Thirty H's), it gives a different result once the names are replaced.
Interesting.
-kA
Douglas Adams. I didn't think my writing was that funny or quirky but I guess I was wrong.
Cory Doctorow shows up a lot.