I believe that it is high time that I answer my own questions.

Not counting a brief stint in a Latin class in high school, I have spent one and a half years of Latin classes: I took Latin in college.

I was interested in Latin because I wanted to take Biblical languages, and I did not know at the time that Hofstra offered Greek classes (and yes, I did eventually take Greek as well).

As for how it affected my writing, I can't honestly say that it has done much. I do remember that it was in Latin class that I figured out the difference between "who" and "whom" ("who" is nominative, "whom" is oblique). However, as I mentioned in a reply to another Boarder on this thread, Latin has opened my eyes etymologically speaking: when I see a big word, I can tell when it came from Latin, and I can sometimes tell what the root word is. Now having taken Greek as well, one can only guess how often I see something that makes me think "this looks/sounds like it came from Latin/Greek"!

I had a very good Latin teacher at school, and went on to read Classics at Oxford (including compulsory Greek, yuck).

As for what I learned that's transferrable to writing English prose... Unlike modern languages, you're still taught the formal grammar and composition; I was able to use that framework to better understand English grammar and syntax. It's very important too to realise that languages change over time, and that rules that are correct in one context or register may be incorrect in another. I found the diachronic view of a thousand years and more very helpful in gaining that perspective. Finally, it was absolutely vital to realise that primers and style-guides are, at best, only providing guidelines: all the best authors regularly break the "rules", and learning how and when to do so successfully makes your writing so much more natural and flowing, and often more expressive. If you stick religiously to only the simple, straightforward constructions in your primer, you'll end up writing like a stilted primary-school teacher (or student!) regardless of the context.

I have been exposed to Latin in various ways, including choir singing, science classes (scientific terms also involve lots of Greek), and linguistics classes, not to mention looking up the etymology of words on my own. I think knowing where your language comes from is immensely helpful for writers. For me, it gives me an appreciation of the nuances of the words, and helps me choose them more carefully. It also helps in guessing the meaning of unfamiliar words when I see them for the first time.

~Neshomeh

I studied it in high school, but only because I had to. I don't remember much of it, though, and I don't think it's helping much for my writing (aside being able to instantly recognize Gratuitous Latin and the fake one used to make up HP spells and such)

Born Roman Catholic, see.

Outside of that, I just abuse translators when I need the Latin help.

As for how it helps me, I typically use it in combination with French or Greek if I can pull it off as a language of incantation for magic, when I use vocal incantations as triggers in stories.

Like:

Feignotia - Fire with prefix in French (Feu), suffix in Greek (fotia), and middle in Latin (ignis).

Or, I use Latin on its own for things like arc words.

Such as:

Quando homo fecit apparatus, homo ædificavit deus. - Arc words from a sci-fi story in production; "When man made machine, man built god."

So, you know, little things.

Hope that was correct for "the only good language is a dead language" :-) I actually took Latin for five years, but since my last lesson was about six years ago, not all that much has stuck. What did stick is enough to understand and create spells for Harry Potter, though. Makes me cringe when I see stuff like "animagus stoppero" in a fanfic. Adding "io", "ero" or other such bastardizations does NOT make it Latin! I cannot stress this enough! Rant over :-)

Five years of Latin in middle and high school, and I've intermittently kept up the study in the three years since. I would say that Latin has actually helped me write better, because it got me thinking outside the boundaries of English and let me better understand large words.

1. Never took any latin classes in my life
   
   2. Only interested because of the Heros of Olympus and camp Jupiter.
   
   3. Seeing as I never had latin, I can't say it helped my writing.

I haven't taken a single Latin class (not offered at my school), but I have friends who have. I have taken four years of French, though, so I understand what to do with gendered nouns and stuff.

My grasp of Latin only takes me to coming up with Mary Sue classification names for my Sue Report, really, although I've attempted Potterverse spells once or twice as well.