Thumbing through the latest copy of The Author (the house journal for the Society of Authors), I discovered a website called 'I write Like' (www.iwl.me). In order to discover whose style one is unknowingly emulating, you enter a few paragraphs of your own prose into the site and, hey presto, it caters to your writer's weary ego by coming up with some literary giant.
I entered the first two paragraphs of my novel and found that my style is decidedly akin to Dan Brown. A pretty promising start, I thought.
That was until I tried the second chapter, and found that I had inexplicably become Agatha Christie. However, by the middle of the novel, the great Dame had left the stage and H. P. Lovecraft had taken over.
Confused (or rather 'bemused'), I decided to enter a few paragraphs of an award winning short story from a few years ago, and discovered that I had once been a James Joyce write-a-like.
At least, rather akin to Tony Blair, I should in due course be able to get my work onto several different shelves in Waterstones.
So that is all right then...I think...
