Can you be Just to close to the work?

In a physical and emotional sense I believe you can..  my approach to this is two fold as artist and writer.   First as an artist you can be just too close you really don’t see a project clearly at the time.  On many occasions I have painted a picture, which I loved considered it to be a good work, to revisit it a few years later and think “what the heck was I up to when I painted that?”   and the reverse is true..  a painting that I considered a bit lack lustre at the time with the benefit of hindsight looks a valid piece of art..  the same is true of writing  though sadly a lot of my early stuff was so shallow I would be to embarrassed to show it to anyone now.  It is all apart of that growing process..  I guess one of my hardest learnt lessons so far in writing is, keeping it in a point of view and deep characterisation.  It is important to fix your point of view and keep it there and if you switch to another view point make a clear transition.   But of course when writing you can’t always see it..  You are too involved..   For what it is worth..  My ten cents..   Sometimes it is good to step back and look at the BIG picture, either art or writing, is the structure good?  Does the idea work over all?  Is the plot strong? 

Cheers….  

Ric