Recently I did something I rarely do: I accepted a proofreading and editing job.
I've got nothing against these tasks, but they don't give me much of a thrill.
This particular job, however, was too fascinating to turn down.
The short eBook I was assigned to edit was all about gold and silver - hot topics in these uncertain times.
The writer was passionate about his subject and his passion came through in every sentence he wrote.
It made my job easy, because his work was a joy to read.
As I went about editing, it occurred to me that I was in danger of ruining his wonderfully informative and entertaining ebook.
While his misplaced commas and occasional misspellings were not going to be missed by anyone, I was afraid that if I polished his work too much, it would read like a textbook and lose its soul.
That got me to thinking about writing styles.
I decided to do a little research and see what other writers had to say about the subject.
After a somewhat circuitous search, I stumbled across an old book by Robert Lewis Stevenson called On Some Technical Elements of Style in Literature.
Pretty dry stuff coming from the author of the great children's classic, Treasure Island.
I didn't read much.
His first paragraph was all it took to get my juices flowing.
This is what he said:

There is nothing more disenchanting to man than to be shown the springs and mechanism of any art.
All our arts and occupations lie wholly on the surface; it is on the surface that we perceive their beauty, fitness, and significance; and to pry below is to be appalled by their emptiness and shocked by the coarseness of the strings and pulleys.

I've always felt my best work is the work that comes off the top of my head.
The first article I ever wrote that I got paid for was such a piece.
It took all of an hour to write.
It was the first and only time in my life I've made $200 an hour and the article even earned me an offer to go on and write three more, for a series of four.
The other three were published, but everyone agreed the first one was the best.
I don't know what Stevenson went on to say in the rest of his book, but what I got out of that paragraph was that the heart and soul of writing is in the passion you put into it.
All the other stuff, the "strings and mechanism," is just window dressing.
I'm not saying that grammar, punctuation, sentence structure and all the rest isn't important.
It is.
However, in my opinion, the best way to cultivate your writing style is to forget about all that and just write.
Don't think about your imaginary readership; don't think about keyword density (least of all that!) and don't think about your High School English teacher's opinion of your work.
Just let the words come out.
You can always come back later and "pry below" the surface.
In other words, the best way to cultivate your writing style is to not even try.
By the way, if you're a starving artist or avid reader on a budget, check out Project Gutenberg.
They've got thousands of old classics and they are all free.
That's where I found Stevenson's book.