Working on some research. Right

In the process of making myself get started again on my own writing, I meandered away from my real work and let myself believe I was doing research (research, really? - that's not what I should be working on). But I found a site called 'I Write Like'. I was too curious. It was only going to take a few minutes. It only ever takes a few minutes when I wander away from my task at hand until I realize I wasted 30-45 minutes out of the 30 I planned to work.

This site was built by a Russian software programmer that uses an algorithm to tell you which author your writing resembles. He programmed 50 authors into the code along with matching length of sentences, commas, use of quotes, etc. I thought, 'why not'? It'll only take a second.

I copied my recent post, Doing, from here and pasted it in. It said I wrote like David Foster Wallace. I don't know who he is so I had to research that. Well, he isn't anymore because he committed suicide at age 46, but he was best known as an American writer, essayist, short story writer, and professor of English and creative writing. Okay. But I thought, 'do I always write like him'? I grabbed another of my posts, It was a cold, dark morning, and had the site analyze it.  Bam - Stephen King. I had to grin. Well, yeah. It had all this dark imagery and blustery words. It was the best match out of all to choose from, right?  It probably had the most keywords to match.  How about one more, just at random.  Can I match up to the same author with any of these?  I picked, Attack of the Spaghetti Squash. Another terror type?  I wanted to see.  Copy, paste, click...Chuck Palahniuk.  Who's that?  I little more research...guess who.  The guy who wrote Fight Club!  Yeah, okay.  I guess I see it. Self-inflicted pain, maybe? I write like him, too.  Three different authors from three random and recent pieces. I'm all over the place! It was fun but I'm not sure it has any real impact on what I write.

It turned out to be a lot of extra research that had nothing to do with the actual writing, and editing of my own work.  It was only another, more fun way to procrastinate. But you should give it a try. Copy something and see...it will only take a second, said the lady after 45 minutes.

Link to I Write Like
TT

P.S.  I couldn't help myself and copied this post into the site. It says this post is like H.P. Lovecraft. He was known for horror fiction published in pulp magazines before he died in poverty. Enough already...make me stop!