Post History
I am reminded of the anecdote about Dustin Hoffman torturing himself for Marathon Man because he was a "Method" actor, so he'd look as tortured as his character. Lawrence Olivier looked at him and ...
Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed
by
System
·
2019-12-13T12:00:16Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/7822 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T02:51:26Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/7822 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
I am reminded of the anecdote about Dustin Hoffman torturing himself for _Marathon Man_ because he was a "Method" actor, so he'd look as tortured as his character. Lawrence Olivier looked at him and said, "My dear boy, that's why they call it _acting._" Whenever we write, unless we're writing an autobiography, we are _always_ putting ourselves into someone else's mood, experience, mindset, etc. So while you can [take notes when you're in a particular mood](https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/7460/effective-techniques-for-describing-pain/7461#7461) to use for later, just because you're depressed doesn't mean you'll write brilliant prose from the POV of being depressed. You may just be too depressed to write anything. That is, in fact, "changing how a writer writes," but not, I think, in the way you meant.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2013-05-06T09:58:32Z (over 11 years ago)
Original score: 7