I write like David Foster Wallace, according to I Write Like. The site employs a statistical analysis tool that analyzes a sample of your writing and matches it up with that of a well-known writer.
Any bit of text will work: blog post, Word doc copy, journal entry—pretty much anything other than a tweet.
According to Wikipedia:
David Foster Wallace (February 21, 1962 – September 12, 2008) was an American author of novels, essays, and short stories, and a professor at Pomona College in Claremont, California. He was widely known for his 1996 novel Infinite Jest, which Time included in its All-Time 100 Greatest Novels list (covering the period 1923–2006).
Los Angeles Times book editor David Ulin called Wallace “one of the most influential and innovative writers of the last 20 years.”
What can you do to become a better writer? I can think of lots of things: 33 of them in fact:
- Write everyday no matter what.
- Edit the hell out of your copy and then edit some more.
- Listen carefully to everyone you meet, no matter how smart or dumb you think they might be.
- You can’t please everyone, so don’t try.
- Embrace life, have fun and make every day your best day.
- Use the active voice.
- Use the passive voice when you want to emphasize the recipient or victim of an action.
- Think for yourself.
- Omit needless words.
- Use as few adjectives and adverbs as possible.
- Use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences.
- Use infographics when you’re dealing with lots of numbers.
- Approach every writing job with the idea that you are going to do the best you can and nothing less.
- Think big; it’s just as easy as thinking small.
- Read everything you can get your hands on and analyze what you read.
- Write. Put your copy aside for as long as your deadline permits. Then edit.
- Use a hard copy dictionary because you never know what you’ll find when you’re just flipping pages.
- The same is true for grammar books.
- Try mind mapping.
- Keep a notepad next to your bed.
- Try writing standing up.
- Don’t wait until a deadline is staring you in the face before you start writing.
- Write in a way that comes naturally to you. To put it another way, use a conversational style.
- Write frankly and fearlessly.
- Go to the movies. Visit an art gallery. Listen to music. You never know where your inspiration will come from.
- Take risks.
- Keep you paragraphs short–three or four sentences each will do.
- Put your keywords up front.
- Put your keywords into your headlines.
- Don’t overdo punctuation.
- Break rules but only if you know why they’re rules in the first place.
- Use the present tense.
- Toss aside hyperbole and exaggeration.
- Check your numbers.
