I find it interesting how authors have “voices.” Not their actual real-world voice, of course, but a kind of stylistic fingerprint that usually demarcates their work.
Like, pick a random page from a well-known author (or at least one you know well) and chances are pretty good you could pick them out. Or, perhaps for a more fair test, pick an author, and then read four paragraphs, where only one was written by the author… I think most readers would be able to pick it out, even if it was a paragraph from a book they never read.
It makes me think a little about my voice. My “style” is definitely laser-swords-and-explosions, but I suspect there are elements of my work that I’m not conscious of that work their way in. The way my characters talk, or how often they talk, or what they talk about… how often discussions of coffee come up in my works (I can think of at least three distinct coffee-related conversations in the Tintian series… I don’t think it was one per book, but it may have been!), or how often I shy away from depicting violence directly… a lot of casual comic-book-style references to the aftermath of violence (ships exploding or the like), but seldom that zoomed-in view that some authors wield so skillfully.
I suppose a big part of authorial style is specifically that you aren’t aware of it. You don’t think in a voice, you just write and your own style develops out of that. Or, in my case, I absorb as many other styles and voices as I can, and then I try my best to synergize them into something new and interesting. “How to Train Your Dragon, in Space” or “Tintin adventure stories, in Space” or whatever.
Anyways, just some idle thoughts for today. Back to the novel!
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!