Whenever I think of the the best writing style, I am immediately drawn to the period of writing from the 1890s to the 1940s.
For example, "We left in pretty good time, and came after nightfall to Klausenburgh. Here I stopped for the night at the Hotel Royale. I had for dinner, or rather supper, a chicken done up some way with red pepper, which was very good but thirsty." This is an excerpt from page one of Bram Stoker's "Dracula."
Example 2, "From a very early age, perhaps the age of five or six, I knew that when I grew up I should be a writer. Between the ages of about seventeen and twenty-four I tried to abandon this idea, but I did so with the consciousness that I was outraging my true nature and that sooner or later I should have to settle down and write books." George Orwell's "Why I Write."
There are many other examples that I could give, but I think that these illustrate the style in a good way. It is very economical writing. It is also not very fantastical; for example, in Bram Stoker's Dracula, he writes "I did not sleep well, though my bed was comfortable enough, for I had all sorts of queer dreams." He then goes on to blame it on the paprika from the night before. A theme I see in a lot of modern writing is to describe absolutely everything, and one would expect a modern writer to give a detailed account of the dream; but Bram Stoker simply explains it as queer, and couches it, leaving the reader to decide if they want to imagine what the dreams might have been. (I should defend myself by saying that I don't think that writers who do explain a lot are bad, but I personally enjoy this style, the economical style, of writing more.)
But, again, what is most amazing to me about the writing style is how few big words they ever use. I had a habit of thinking I was clever in middle school and using all sorts of big words by keeping a thesaurus next to me when I wrote essays. This is much less clever to me now as it was then, but these words are now a very serious part of my vocabulary, and it is very difficult not to write sentences where these words would fit.
I've heard of so many authors who copied their idol's writing style. Christopher Hitchens said that he deliberately tried to copy Orwell, and then mostly abandoned it while only keeping the spirit of his writing in mind.
How does one abandon their writing habits and pick up another style? I understand that it is practice, but getting out of the mindset of excessive adjectives and large words seems nearly impossible.