Honing your writer's "voice"

[Felicity R]

I'm curious to know if any of the other writers here have any suggestions for perfecting your particular writing style. While I believe it's possible (with enough practice) for someone to learn how to write with any sort of cadence and style that they like, I find most people tend to fall into their own particular style or "voice" that becomes synonymous with them.

So my question is, how would you all define your writer's voice, and what do you do to help enhance it, and make it more stylistically your own?

I've tried my hand at fiction in the past, though the most I ever accomplished was the beginning of a novel (roughly 30,000 words). Most of what I write now is more news writing style, as one of my jobs is working for the editorial staff of the international office of my university. For news writing my style tends to be very minimalist. I like to let my sources tell their own story through quotes, and only using my own words to create the bridges that connect the information they provide.

I think my biggest stylistic weakness, is learning to be more concise. Saying more with fewer words has always been something I've tried to improve upon.

[Lady Smith]

Writing with a voice in the words set down on the page can be tricky to carry off well, but the method I've used which seems to work for me is to know the character whose eyes are seeing the events in the story as a whole person.  When I write I put on the character who is the storyteller like a garment which helps me to think and speak in the way that they do.  This can get tough because if you're doing it properly their emotions will be your emotions too, their fears will be your fears.  Then on the other hand who ever said writing was easy.