July 14, 2010

I Am Dan Brown?

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The internet toy du jour is a site that supposedly analyzes your writing and tells you which famous writer you most resemble. I’m dubious. I stuck in several blog posts, followed by a few magazine articles of several thousand words each, and it turns out that I write like Dan Brown, Kurt Vonnegut, George Orwell, H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, Lovecraft again, Brown again, Brown yet again, and King again.

So I write like everyone. On balance, though, I write like Dan Brown. Which is great news since he’s — what? The best selling author since Yahweh? For some reason, though, my writing income still seems to trail his by a wee amount. What am I doing wrong?

UPDATE: I analyzed some fiction written 30 years ago and got Vonnegut, James Joyce (!), King, Douglas Adams, King, and King. So maybe I’m really more like Stephen King, which would be great too, though his writing riches still elude me.

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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