So, I tried this little game online that compares your writing to famous writers, and I came out, based on one of my prose pieces, as James Joyce.
Then I tried two poems.
For the first one I got Joyce again.
For the second one I got:
I’m guessing it is some sort of comparison algorithm at work here. I have never read DFW, and only read short stories by JJ. I cannot imagine I am much like either of them with my writing, but I do love to spin out a long sentence, which enrages my fellow poets, who have argued this makes me a non-poet, but I’m going to say I don’t agree with them, though it may be why I have yet to win a poetry grant. I think no one gets it. But, when no one gets it, does that mean people are incapable of grasping it, or that I just suck? I admit to being open to both possibilities, though I try to encourage myself that the former is true. If I didn’t, I’d probably stop pecking away.
BTW, as I peck away, it occurs to me, having grown up typing (without learning how to type) on a typewriter, that one of the kindest things I have done for my own writing is to purchase a separate keyboard that is bluetoothed to my laptop, and looks and feels more like a typewriter, and makes it a lot easier for me to type quickly. I typically, in case you happened to be curious, use two hands but only three fingers to type, and I don’t look at the keyboard most of the time, so a typewriter-like keyboard has made it a lot easier.
And, if I ever write or say I don’t look at the keyboard, I find, for at least a few sentences afterwards, I type nothing but gibberish unless I look at the keyboard. Which means I am the suggestive type. 😉
In any case, I found the thing fun, though I was hoping to be compared to Tom Robbins, and no one else.
Who do you write like?
