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I Almost Forgot About You

  by Terry McMillan

(about 444 pages)
111,008
total words
80th PERCENTILE
of all the books in our library
40.28%
vividness
29th PERCENTILE
of all the books in our library
10.29%
passive voice
96th PERCENTILE
of all the books in our library
3.74%
all adverbs
92nd PERCENTILE
of all the books in our library
0.74%
ly-adverbs
19th PERCENTILE
of all the books in our library
3.01%
non-ly-adverbs
99th PERCENTILE
of all the books in our library

clippings from this book

We’ve analyzed hundreds of millions of words, from thousands of different authors, training our linguistic models to recognize the most vivid words in the English language… the words that create the most intense sensory experiences: colors, textures, sounds, flavors, and aromas.

Based on our analysis, we’ve scanned through the pages of this book to find the two pages at the extremes, both the most-passive and the most-vivid pages, so that you can compare them side-by-side and see the difference:

MOST PASSIVE PAGE
MOST VIVID PAGE
I had no idea we were in middle school together.” “He’s a good man. Too bad he’s snagged. We could’ve made this a double wedding! That would’ve been fun.” “Okey-dokey, Ma. I’m going to have to get on the highway.” “What’s your hurry?” “I’ve got a lot of things to do.” “Like what?” Right then I realized I didn’t have anything pressing at home, I’m just used to saying it. “I might go look at houses.” “You haven’t sold yours yet, so what’s the hurry?” “It’s been a long time since I’ve looked at houses, and I figured I might as well get some idea what money can buy.” “Do you not watch 60 Minutes or read the paper? Don’t you know how long you could be sitting on your house, especially in that bracket?” “Of course I do.” “Why would you want to buy another stupid house when it’s only you?” “I said I was starting to look. And I might not be by myself by the time I move.” “Don’t tell me you’re dating?” “I’ve had a few here and there.” “Stop lying, Georgia. Not only don’t you look like you haven’t been on a date, but tell me this: When was the last time you had sex, missy?” “That is none of your business, Ma.” “How many years?” “What makes you think it’s been years?” “Because you’ve got that unsatisfied look, and you’ve had it about four years. I’ve been counting.” “It hasn’t been that long.” “It’s cook anyway—see what appeals and then improvise. I leave a note on the floor just inside the front door: Hope you guys are hungry. Gone to Whole Foods. Making dinner. No meat. No shellfish. Back shortly! I decide on Chilean sea bass because I love the meaty texture and the fatty content that absorbs whatever spices or sauces I use. Asparagus: stir-fried with minced garlic, crystallized ginger, and Korean soy sauce. Fingerling red, purple, and Yukon Gold potatoes rolled in olive oil and rosemary: baked. Spring greens with my sneaky homemade basil vinaigrette dressing. I buy some sourdough, but I’m not touching it. I buy crème brûlée and an assortment of those little French cookies—I forget what they’re called. I’m not even going to sniff them. It’s almost seven, and I’m in the kitchen with everything spread out on the island watching Rachel Maddow sign off on MSNBC when I hear the door open. “Mom, we’re here! Where are you?” “In the kitchen!” I yell, pressing the lettuce spinner, scrambling to turn off the water that’s running over the potatoes and the asparagus, and sliding the wok to the back eye. “You beat us here! Great note!” Frankie says as I hear them kick off their shoes and head down the hall. Just as I’m about to wipe my seasoned fingers on my yellow apron, standing in the doorway is my daughter and a chocolate brown Hunter! I’m trying not to act surprised he’s black, but of course

emotional story arc

Click anywhere on the chart to see the most significant emotional words — both positive & negative — from the corresponding section of the text…
This chart visualizes the the shifting emotional balance for the arc of this story, based on the emotional strength of the words in the prose, using techniques pioneered by the UVM Computational Story Lab. To create this story arc, we divided the complete manuscript text into 50 equal-sized chunks, each with 2220.16 words, and then we scored each section by counting the number of strongly-emotional words, both positive and negative. The bars in the chart move downward whenever there’s conflict and sadness, and they move upward when conflicts are resolved, or when the characters are happy and content. The size of each bar represents the positive or negative word-count of that section.

similar books by different authors

other books by Terry McMillan

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