How Does Addiction Influence An Author's Writing Style

There are 17.6 million people in the United States who suffer alcohol addiction. This includes many famous people as well. In fact, a lot of authors are some of these people. In fact, an author’s addiction can shape their writing style and make it unique. Some people believe, however, that an author’s writing style has not changed when they are not under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Addiction influences an author’s writing style because it shows up in characters that they created and it gives them the inspiration to write their stories. Addiction can influence an author’s writing style because it can show up in characters in the author’s work. This is proven in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Furthermore, “Fitzgerald filled his writings to the brim with liquor. He peopled a great deal of his short stories and pretty much all of his novels with alcoholics” (“A Brief Examination of Alcoholism in a Literary

Stephen King is an example of this when, after he recovered from his addiction, “he emerged from this period of crippling writer’s block, [and] his admirers claimed there was a new intelligence and depth to his writing” (Leafe). For this reason, critics argue that addiction does not affect an author’s writing style. Nonetheless, the author gets inspiration from the way they feel about their addiction to write the way that they do. This is proven by Dorothy Parker, another alcoholic author. In her story, Big Blonde, “[t]he protagonist is a woman in her 30’s named Hazel Morse. Like Parker, Morse is an alcoholic” (“Dorothy Parker and Alcoholism”). Inspired by the dangerous addiction that she faces, Parker writes a short story with a main character who is facing the same problem. Therefore, it is evident that if these authors did not deal with these addictions, then their writing would be different, and it would not be so heavily inspired by their