Voice is something that's difficult to capture for many authors; I've done two columns on it already, and obviously had the idea to do another, since I'm writing this.
An important part of using "voice" as I defined it in those columns is "finding" it. You have to know what you want from voice before you try to use it, and you have to know what form the voice will take.
Writing, say, Sherlock Homes can be tricky, especially since you are not liable to be from Victorian/Edwardian England. A simple tip for "finding" it is immersion.
What does this mean? Read the heck out of any relevant source material. If you want a colloquial accent of some kind, do a bit of research into it and find out what the odder parts mean, and then write some practice.
An even better option, if you can manage it, is to try talking that way. After all, if you're writing something, it's either going to be said at some point, or people will be trying to imagine it being said. This can be easier than it sounds-I frequently adopt accents (sometimes-well, often-unintentionally) after reading a lot of period fiction. (I currently sound just a smidgen Victorian English myself, actually. Unusual for an Ohioan living over a hundred years after Victoria's death.)
This is only significant, of course, if you don't want all your characters to sound just like you. If you for some reason don't mind the idea of all of your characters sounding like clones of you, well, nobody's stopping you. (And some people will read/watch your stuff without noticing, but somebody's likely to pick up on it and complain.)
Well, that's all I have to say (heh) on voice for now. Here's hoping (once more) that I won't come up with a lot more to say by tomorrow.
-Signing off.
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