My Hyper-Caffeinated Mind

've made a semi-pact with myself to wean my time off the internet to spend more time with family and writing, but this has been on my mind for awhile now, so I've got the bug to post it.  I've really turned a lot of personal reading time into personal STUDY, taking the writers I dearly love and studying what they do that makes me love their work.  I've noticed two things:

1. Difference between Dialogue and Narrative voice:

I've noticed that the really great writers are able to differentiate between their characters' voices and their narrative voice. The two most notable in this are Peter Straub and Ray Bradbury, so far.  Straub has his wonderful, meaty and literary prose; Bradbury's is lyrical, musical, flowing...but both writers are able to seamlessly jump into pitch-perfect, spot on dialogue for any character they choose.  They could both be writing about swearing, drunken sailors from...say...Louisiana (not sure how many drunken sailors hail from there)...and while their narrative voice will be ALL them - either very literary or lyrical - their dialogue jumps right into the attitudes, mannerisms, and speech patterns of drunken sailors, perfectly.

2. Some others take their POV - Narrative and dialogue - and plunge STRAIGHT into the character's head COMPLETELY.  Actually, the only one who's ever done this that I've really liked is the man: Stephen King. Other people try to copy it, but I think only he does it the way it can be done.  With the first example, it's like we've got a wonderful, powerful observer telling us the story and giving us a sense of place and experience, but with Stephen King WE'RE the drunken sailors, (c'mon, you've always wanted to be one), all the way.

That's all I have.  What say you?