I often hear people say to new writers, 'Find your voice.' Your voice encompasses the way you express yourself through your writing. This includes your word choice, sentence structure, and overall writing style that sets your writing apart from others.
Finding your voice is an ongoing process that evolves over time. As you continue to write and explore different subjects and topics, your voice can develop and change. And that's okay. But is that all?
Every story and its characters have their own unique voices, and your role as a writer is to channel the voices of your characters, to give them life and depth on the page as the medium through which those voices are expressed.
While you may have your own writing style and voice as an author, it's important to adapt your narrative voice to the needs of the story and its characters. This means understanding each character's background, personality, perspectives, motivations, and worldview so you can successfully reflect those aspects in their dialogue, thoughts, and actions.
Sometimes, the characters themselves dictate the style and structure of the story. As their personalities develop and their journeys unfold, they may require different narrative approaches that best suit their arcs. This organic development can even result in marked stylistic and structural differences between books in a series.
My advice to all new writers is: 'Just close your eyes, listen to your characters, and write.'