So, there appears to be 2 main aps that deal with “who you write most like”. The one I’m not putting up here has some modern authors, but they have a pool of 50 authors you’re supposed to be like, and frankly, that’s not wide enough. This one uses Gutenberg, which means you’re not only compared to novelists, but to politicians, other notable people.
It won’t help you with modern comps, but it does connect you somewhat to people who you more emulate than others…at least for that given text.
So, I’m editing in Mini Moo, with it’s chapters being slowly simplified, to make it more an easy read. I’m through chapter 19 on that, and have 13 more to go. I get better hits off the less simplified writing (because yesteryear is Charles Dickens), but still saw some consistency in the results, so:
sampled whole chapters, simplified and unedited
From general chat, specific chapters, anyone over roughly 30% match
Ch 1
Lucy Maud Montgomery, Upton Sinclair, Louisa May Alcott, Edith Wharton, Philip K. Dick, Samuel Pepys, Willa Cather, John Marshall, Henry James, Bertrand Russell, John Stuart Mill, Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling, John Muir, Sinclair Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, D. H. Lawrence, Stephen Crane, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jack London, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Hardy, James Fenimore, CooperP. G. Wodehouse, Jean Webster, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens
Ch 4
Willa Cather (over 50%), Lucy Maud Montgomery, Edith Wharton, Sinclair Lewis, Stephen Crane, Rudyard Kipling, Jean Webste, rP. G. Wodehouse, Joseph Conrad, Winston Churchill, William Dean Howells, Washington Irving, Upton Sinclair, D. H. Lawrence, Louisa May Alcott, Anthony Trollope, Zane Grey, Thomas Hardy, Bertrand Russell, Henry James, G.K. Chesterton, Charles Dickens, Jack London, Samuel Pepys, John Muir, Mark Twain, Philip K. Dick, George Meredith
Ch 15
Willa Cather, Lucy Maud Montgomery, John Muir, William Butler Yeats, Joseph Conrad, H. G. Wells, Edith Wharton, Philip K. Dick, Charles Dickens, Stephen Crane, Arthur Conan Doyle, Louisa May Alcott, Rudyard Kipling, Bertrand Russell, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Samuel Johnson, P. G. Wodehouse, Henry James, G.K. Chesterton, Jack London, Mark Twain, Sinclair Lewis, Upton Sinclair, Thomas Hardy, David Hume, D. H. Lawrence, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
Ch 19
Lucy Maud Montgomery (near 50%), Edith Wharton, Willa Cather, Samuel Pepys, Anthony Trollope, Upton Sinclair, Samuel Johnson, Stephen Crane, Arthur Conan Doyle, Philip K. Dick, Bertrand Russell, Henry James, Thomas Hardy, Winston Churchill, Jane Austen, John Muir, Louisa May Alcott, P. G. Wodehouse, William Dean Howells, Charles Dickens
… (edited)
[5:02 PM]
Unsimplified chapters: I got closer to 50% before I simplified sentences.
Ch 26
Stephen Crane (near 50%), Edith Wharton (near 50%), Lucy Maud Montgomery (near 50%),Upton Sinclair (near 50%), Henry James, Willa Cather, John Muir, Joseph Conrad, Rudyard Kipling, P. G. Wodehouse, Winston Churchill, Jean Webster, Bertrand Russell, Philip K. Dick, John Stuart Mill, Samuel Johnson, Thomas Hardy, D. H. Lawrence, Zane Grey, Arthur Conan Doyle
Ch 29
Willa Cather (near 50%), Washington Irving (near 50%), Upton Sinclair (near 50%), Lucy Maud Montgomery (near 50%), Jean Webster, Stephen Crane, John Muir, Rudyard Kipling, Charles Dickens, Joseph Conrad, Henry James, Thomas Hardy, Zane Grey, Louisa May Alcott, Sinclair Lewis, D. H. Lawrence, Jane Austen, Edith Wharton, Anthony Trollope, William Dean Howells, John Stuart Mill, Samuel Johnson
Ch 32
John Muir (near 50%), Edith Wharton (near 50%), Lucy Maud Montgomery (near 50%), Thomas Hardy (near 50%), G.K. Chesterton, Philip K. Dick, Willa Cather, Rudyard Kipling, Anthony Trollope, John Marshall, P. G. Wodehouse, Louisa May Alcott, Harriet Beecher Stowe, D. H. Lawrence, Stephen Crane, Upton Sinclair, Samuel Pepys, H. G. Wells, Henry James, Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle
Lucy Maud Montgomery? Anne of Green Gables. Ok, I can hang with that.
Willa Cather, a great plains author, around the turn of the previous century, which this is a vaguely midwest story, that sounds right.
And the blip of Stephen Crane was earned, and probably is how Upton Sincliar comes into the mix. Reality vs moralism does play throughout the story.
Thomas Hardy, probably by punchy endings to chapters (cliffhanger).
I wouldn’t say I write like any of them. But I can see where the percentages come in at.
Can’t wait until I get a big hit off a more complex story. lol
