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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/5478
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

What you are talking about isn't "voice", but a scene change.

If something is important to your to your scene, you need to describe it in detail. This is especially true in scenes with danger or suspense. So if your heroes are entering a dungeon, where you know there is a monster hiding, you may describe the dungeon in great detail, making the characters jump at the smallest noise. This will make the reader tense with anticipation on what will happen next. Of course, the more suspense you build, the greater must be the threat and resolution. You cannot then end the scene saying "There was nothing there but a grumpy fairy in the dungeon." The reader will feel cheated and throw the book.

At other times, you need to show a great time has passed, without boring the reader with all the trivial details. So you can just say "3 days passed, and Hero X was too busy to see his friends about the grumpy fairy they met in the dungeon".

As another example, if a child moves to a new school, you can describe his first day in detail, as he will be lost, confused and scared. He will be taking a lot in, and the reader can share his fears/hopes. But if you then start describing every day hence, it will become a boring journal, and the reader will rightly throw away your book.

So you can skip past the boring parts with the words "And five years passed in the blink of an eye, before Sam heard about the scary dungeon where people vanished. He made a plan to check it out with his friends. 'Golly gee, I hope I find something more dangerous than a grumpy fairy down there' he said to himself".

So to summarise: Scenes that matter, describe in detail, but only if it is relevant to the plot, or to increase suspense. If you then want to move to the next important scene, you can do so in 1-2 sentences, and expect the reader to understand that some time (hours or days) have passed.

Original score: 3