You write like a girl
Apparently I write like Margaret Atwood. Here’s my proof:
I write like
Margaret Atwood
It’s kind of peculiar. Not that I don’t like Margaret Atwood (though of her novels I’ve only read The Handmaid’s Tale), but… Well, it just seems like all of these “what is your writing style” tests, based on my blog entries or on my stories, guess that my writing is by a woman. And there are several tests out there (most of them rather dubious, of course) that purport to guess your gender based on a series of questions that you answer; and almost all of these quizzes guess that I’m a woman. This is weird because I’ve frequently been told that when I try to write from a woman’s point of view, I just don’t succeed.
I wonder if this is something I should explore more, or some weirdness I should just chalk up to the Internet?
Edit: Keffy Kehrli Tweeted to me: “I’ll see your gender binary and raise you one James Tiptree.” Touche, Keffy. Touche.
What gets me is that, so far, almost all the writers they’ve cited are male. You’ve made a rare accomplishment; not even Margaret Atwood scored as Margaret Atwood.
Maybe you’re writing from a woman’s point of view, but it’s a lesbian.
Me, I keep getting Chuck Palahniuk and Dan Brown… and I’ve never read either.
Eh. I put in three short stories and a blog entry and got four different authors (one of them Atwood). So either I’ve got multiple personalities or I’m 75% dude. Or these kinds of tests are silly.
I vote silly. 😉
And apparently when Margaret Atwood entered her prose sample, she was told she writes like Stephen King.
I guess all it means is that we all write :p
Some friends and I have done a lot of sampling with this engine, and I would take whatever it says with a large spoonful of salt. It’s fun to see what it says, but don’t let it be a measure of your actual ability.
Yeah. It also told me that I write like David Foster Wallace and like Stephen King. And as I recall it told Margaret Atwood herself that she writes like Stephen King. So… Yeah. A full cellar full of salt.