Like whom do you write?

[Cygnus]

My biggest problem is that while English is my native tongue, I lack proper grammar and spelling abilities.

I went to college studying English for four years -

The first two, they hammered the rules of grammar into my head.
The last two, they told me to ignore them.

English is like fashion in that regard - to successfully break the rules, one must know them!

My honest recommendation is to learn a foreign language (preferably one that shares its roots with English, so a Latin-based or Germanic language). It seems a bit counter-intuitive to dive into a new language when you don't have mastery of your own, but I promise it works. Learning the new grammar and the spelling conventions will open your eyes to the way things are in your native tongue.

Sorry if I deviated too much from the topic - this is (obviously) something I'm passionate about!

[cormacmacguardhe]

It said that I write like H.G.Wells. My Victorian sensibilities must come through.

[Downix]

Like some sick and twisted sadist, enveloping my characters in the dark wet mist of the fog of the reality in which they find themselves.

[Woot22]

H. P. Lovecraft for me as well, not very accurate but genius non the less. I have never read Lovecraft but now find myself a little intrigued, so I say kudos to the creators of this website. Anything that gets people reading something new is fine by me.

[ForresterModern]

I did not put any of my writings through the engine, as I do not have them on this computer and most of them are work related anyway (read proprietary). But I have been told in the past by my english professors and other friends that my writing style is distinctly similar to Henry David Thoreau---appropriate as he was a major influence in my developmental years and since (I am a member of the Thoreau Sauntering Society, too). Lots of longer, multiphrase, slightly broken thought type sentences, with too deep an explanation for each thought shared.

jeff

[gilmore]

An interesting app. I submitted 10 writing samples and my writing was compared to Vladimir Nabokov three times, Dan Brown three times, Robert Louis Stevenson twice, and James Joyce, H P Lovecraft, and David Foster Wallace once each. What, if anything, does their writing have in common? How does this app decide whose writing one's resembles?

Nevermind the last question. This tells how: http://www.theawl.com/2010/07/a-qa-w...rocket-science

[Coinneach]

The beginning of my last novel reads like Stephen King.

The last email to my cousin reads like Douglas Adams.

Seems to me my next novel should be a letter to my cousin.

[Tobus]

It says I write like Mario Puzo, author of The Godfather.

Weird.

[Jerry]

I just got around to submitting a sample. It said that I write like H.P. Lovecraft also. That's probably because I submitted a horror/scifi story I started many years ago. It's not all that good, but I would love to be able to get better. at writing.

[KD Burke]

Slowly, laboriously I typed the various consonants, vowels and marks of quotation onto the accursed website. Despite my fevered, frantic haste for knowledge I dared not make the slightest error if my transcription of the eldritch tome I held before me. With painful, quivering slowness I finished the brief passage that would provide enlightenment or shatter my sanity....

It said Lovecraft.....Go figure!

KD :ootd: