Change in writing style.

[Schlank]

Last winter I was suffering from a nasty respiratory virus or infection or something. My head has been in a different place since I got sick, and my writing style has changed somewhat as a result. My newest literary effort is called "Salacious sisters" and it's considerably softer and less dark than any of my previous efforts. Have any of you experienced significant changes in writing styles after a bout of illness?

 

[MillieDynamite]

Not from illness, I softened my style as a choice, but sometimes, I still venture into the darker realms.

 

[KeithD]

No, but the style of the writing of a book I'm reading or just read can influence my style the next time I write.

 

[lovecraft68]

My wife being sick ten years ago sent me into writing violent horror novels. Her recent relapse has me revisiting a femme fatale thriller I'd given up on a couple years ago, but now pissed off enough to get back into writing death and mayhem.

 

[Bazzle]

The style depends on the inspiration?

I try to be different...even if it comes out repetitively the same

 

[AchtungNight]

I have varied my style, perspective, and other things based on the story I’m writing but usually by my own choice. Never in response to an illness, though I have put a story aside at times due to burnout or other challenges and found myself writing something entirely different when I resumed.

 

[Paul_Chance]

I think life events of any sort, such as illness, can influence us as writers.

I'm with Keith on this one. The biggest influence on me is based on what or who I just read. If I catch it, I usually stamp it out.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Nope. I don't get sick anyway.

 

[jehoram]

I took a "creative writing" course in college that required me to write a story each week in a different style, emulating a writer like Hemingway or Faulkner or O'Connor. Not exactly creative, was it? But by writing pastiches of other writers, it forced me to see what shapes a writer's style, and how the use of that tool helps to get the story across.

Later, I had a nervous breakdown and it caused me to stop writing entirely. When I resumed, it had a noticeably different style in my writing, but since I was a different person by then, it made sense.

Emulating another writer's style is still worth doing from time to time.