Toe in the Water

Being Consistently Inconsistent

Being Consistently Inconsistent

A while back I came across one of these web things that claim to analyse your writing and tell you who you write like. Naturally, I threw a few things at it and, like most people (judging from today’s experience with the one found by Steven), it came up with a different name every time. I can remember that Conan Doyle was one of its wild stabs. And Stephen King, if my memory serves me correctly. It seemed that it was concerning itself more with genre and subject than style, so I ignored it and went about my business.

When Steven offered an alternative link to a similar contraption today, I watched everyone having a go before trying it myself. This actually produced a surprise in that one person achieved a steady answer every time - Stephen King for Steven. Everyone else was getting a different answer every time. Steven, of course, is published, so maybe this app is displaying something beyond the circus trick we all took it for. Is it possible that what counts is consistency more than anything else?

I thought I’d give the thing a go at some of my stuff. Started with excerpts from a short story hanging around nearby. Got a different author every time, really disparate - Jane Austen, Margaret Atwood and Leo Tolstoy. I knew I was versatile but in one story?

I threw a few more excerpts from elsewhere at it. Once again, a different answer every time. So I tried complete short stories. Same again, authors ranging from Daniel Defoe to James Joyce.

Now, it’s true that I tend to alter my style to fit the type of story I’m writing. So I get wordy when I’m writing something set in Victorian times, steampunk and stuff like that, much more direct and conversational for present times, and often experimental when writing sci-fi or fantasy. But the claim that my style changes all the way through something as limited as a short story, that surely is ridiculous.

So I am forced to the conclusion that the machine is not looking at style at all, but at things like subject, genre, word lengths, language pitch, and suchlike. But what then can we say about Steven? Is he just incredibly lucky and has hit the jackpot three times in a row on the random selection machine? In which case, I suggest he buy a lottery ticket right now. Or is it identifying something really consistent about Steven’s writing?

In the end, it comes down to what some nerd of a programmer thinks the machine should look for in assessing the writing of various authors. And I am rather dubious in accepting his judgement in that case. Although I’m sure he’s a great judge of D&D games authors.


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