David Madden weighs in on distance

Image from Daily Bulldog

"Have you not yet achieved the proper distance between yourself and your material?
...
Do you comment thematically by intruding as the author to editorialize upon the narrative?
...
Revision poses the question of whether you should expand or lessen the distance between you and the character and/or your reader.
...
For instance, if the point of view is third person central intelligence, it follows logically that any word, phrase or sentence that reveals your own attitudes, especially negative ones, about the point of view character should be cut, because the purpose of that point of view is to limit yourself entirely to the perceptions of that character." (32-3)