While on the plane to visit family last week, I wrote a reaction paragraph to my 'I Write Like' experience...It actually came out quite well, so I figured that I'd post it!
When somebody reads my writing, usually, they don't immediately after say, "oh! You write like Edgar Allen Poe!" In fact, people have never told me that I write like Edgar Allen Poe. I don't even want to hear that I write like him. To a happy anti-depression person who hated morbidity, like me, that could even be seen as an insult!
So when the computer analyzed my writing and told me that I wrote like Edgar Allen Poe, my sensible reaction was: "Ummm, WHAT?!?!" Maybe I was overreacting, but I write like Edgar Allen Poe? I don't think so!
But then I began to notice a similarity: we both use a lot of adjectives...however on second though, so does Jane Austen.
Hmmm, Jane Austen, now there's someone who I might enjoy writing like. It's not that I have anything against good ol' Edgar, but--to put it frankly-- he is morbid, I am not!
I briefly wonder what other authors I might write like. After being told that I write like a famous Canadian blogger and the woman who wrote gone with the wind, I'm still not quite satisfied. I think of long gowns at tea, and immediately I have an idea:
"'It is a fact universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.'
As I opened the novel by Miss Jane Austen, I felt a thrill tremor through my body. How exciting it was to read a novel by one of the greatest female novelists of all time, and even more exhilarating: to memorize each line that Elizabeth Bennet, her sisters, Mr. Darcy, Mr. Bingley, and of course Caroline Bingley
This was in fact my sole reason for reading Pride and Prejudice as many times as I had, I could not get enough of dear, prideful Lizzy, or handsome, prejudiced Mr. Darcy, and of course I treasured reading about their intricate and convoluted relationship.
Somehow, I could identify with Elizabeth, who wasn't as beautiful as her eldest sister, but would certainly be considered a beauty. She who judged harshly (though not without reason) but who was also a compassionate, loving, and loyal sister. I envied the relationship between Elizabeth and Jane Bennet and how protective they were required to be towards their youngest sisters, and I felt a connection with all of their family, no matter how foolish and unabashed the two youngest sisters and their mother were.
This is a novel of which I cannot pretend to get enough, and which shall be opened, and treasured, many more times during my life and the course of history"
I click the analyze button and hold my breath...the image that pops up on the screen 1.5 secounds later? "I write like Jane Austen". My sensible reaction? "YESSS! I've always wanted to write like Jane Austen" [my father walks in the room] "guess what?! I write like Jane Austen!"
He's excited for me, I can tell...not bad being told that you write like one of the best female novelists of all time...it sort of boosts one's self confidence a couple degrees!
Still if I ever publish a historical novel, what are the chances that someone will tell me, "Oh, you write like Jane Austen!"?
After reading that last (morbid/depressing) paragraph, Edgar Allen Poe may be more likely.
