You've got to get obsessed and stay obsessed

I have a friend, whom I am currently editing for in the hopes that she can get it published professionally. She's an astonishingly good writer, but at the moment we are struggling a bit, because her MS calls for multiple 1st person povs, and had hard as we try, they all keep sounding alike. The problem is that, like all good writers, she has a distinctive style, a certain way of writing that makes it special to her. The problem with 1st person, is that that distinctive style tends to carry over into that narrative, and becomes a quirk of that particular character by necessity. 1st person narration tend to be stinkers - when it comes to fanfic, anyway - because the writer either hasn't yet developed a style (leaving the narration bland and uninviting), or because the writer's already developed style is nothing like the characters we already know and love. It takes someone really special to be able to match their voice with that of an already established character, and as interpretation is subjective, there's always going to be some people who don't find it a good fit. It's different in original fic, because there the important issue becomes whether or not the writer's style matches with the character they have created, and whether or not that match is then strong enough to carry the weight of an entire novel. Some of the best novels out there are written in 1st person pov, and they're considered some of the best novels because the strength of the character and the author's style have meshed together so well that they become something transcendental and timeless.

(all just my opinion, of course, please feel free to ignore!)