Too familiar?

[Redlass]

Do you think it is possible to be too familiar with something to write about it?

I've been reading a particular play at least twice a day for the past four weeks and then rehearsing it for three hours a night, five nights a week. I have two-thirds of the play memorized and will probably have the rest of it memorized in about three weeks.

So why can't I write a review of the play? I've analyzed it backward and forward, I've researched the author, I've read the source materials. I've broken down the language in it and counted the meter. I've read other people's reviews of the script and other performances of it. But I can't even figure out how to begin the review, what to include in it, what angle to take, etc.

Hell, forget the Epinions review. I can't even manage to write the press release about the show and that's a much more pressing need.

So, what do you do when you're too close to something? How do you distance yourself from it?

[timdunn]

Having never been in that predicament, I can only offer guesses:

• Pretend you're someone else
• Write a review for something else in the same genre, then change it to suit
• Write the review from the "inside out", so you bring the reader up to your level of familarity with the play, then review it.

Hope one of these helps.

[lambchops]

I had a professor once told me that I shouldn't write about things that were close to me. This perplexed me. To be quite honest, when I write I feel I do a better job because I understand where the characters and the experiences are coming from. This Creative Writing professor really did make me angry. He didn't like my poetry and he didn't like my prose. I can understand the poetry (I'm not great at it), but I am very strong in the prose category. He told me I shouldn't write about the most significant experience of my life because I was too close.

It's all a matter of perspective. If you are too close to something you don't see it as a whole. You only see that individual thing from your eyes. If you are able to step back, it's fine to write about things that are close to you. If you can't, then it may be a good thing not to write about.

[diverpam]

...or imagine what a reviewer would say about it after opening night.

I know... easy for me to say!

Good luck,
Pam

[eplovejoy]

Or you could just write, "You have to be there." That would be easy for you, and it might help ticket sales.

[Redlass]

Did I mention I'm acting in it? Even thinking about what a reviewer might say about it after opening night makes me hyperventilate.

I like saying, "you'd have to be there." Heck, it would be worth of stack of NHs if ya'll would believe me and come to the show!

I've tried a couple different approaches now and ended up deleting both of them. Sigh.