The Archives Interest Me

I suppose this sounds very self-aggrandizing and egotistical, but I really like a lot of the stuff I write and have written. I have been going back to the roots of why I started this blog in the first place, as a place to practice writing, as a way to keep family and friends aware of what’s going on, and as a soapbox. A way to tell stories and jokes and either brighten up someone’s day or make them think about something. One of the most valuable commodities that is required to accomplish a mission of this magnitude more than anything else is time. A little bit of quiet to be able to hear yourself think is always nice, too.

One strange and interesting thing about it all is the way my writing style has changed and has not changed over the years. On one of my friend Tony’s blogs, the eponymous Tony Laplume He has a little widget called, “I write like.” You put in some sample text and it tells you what famous author your writing is similar to. His badge said, Stephen King. This doesn’t surprise me because I have been following Tony for some time now and I think he’s a good writer. I’ve never actually gotten scared reading any of his things, but that may not be the only criteria to be like King.

I thought, “Now that’s really cool. I wonder what I would get?” you copy and paste a few paragraphs of your writing and the thing figures it out for you. So I did that with different writings from different epochs of this blog and got different results each time. I should have quit while I was ahead when I got, “I write like Edgar Allan Poe.” He’s a literary hero of mine. I had never heard of Cory Doctorow before tonight, but apparently, I write like him as well. The one that got me, though, was the one I got for samples from a couple of years ago. Apparently, I also write like Margaret Mitchell. This one surprised me. Even though Mitchell was a reporter and did other literary work, there is only one work that she is world-famous for, Gone With The Wind.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about any of it, but then I got to thinking, “This just means I have a really diversified style.”

Remember, the Good Book says, “Out of Ephraim was there a root of them against Amalek; after thee, Benjamin, among thy people; out of Machir came down governors, and out of Zebulun they that handle the pen of the writer. (Jdg 5:14)”