The creator might not be fully conscious of how or why they decided to start using shorter paragraphs, or why they intuitively stopped using as many sub-heads, but if it’s a pattern that means something about it is working. It’s your job to spot those patterns, mimic them, and then slowly shape them into your own style.

Most of the time, all I was doing was imitating my favorite authors, anyhow. I went through a Hemingway stage (who doesn’t?), but I also went through a pretty serious Annie Proulx stage and a rather embarrassing Cormac McCarthy stage. But that’s what you have to do at the beginning; everybody imitates before they can innovate.