honestly it's nanowrimo's fault. i know too much about the mechanics of writing now. especially if i'm reading an author i'm very familiar with; i'm conscious of him/her behind the scenes, telling the "actors" what to do, and why. i may be able to lose myself in the story for a while, but then something familiar will happen and i'll go "ah! i know why he did that" and it stops being real.

i have a similar problem with movies because i spent too many late nights with my sister, the year we shared an apartment, analyzing movies after we watched them. i can "believe" it for a while, but then i'll notice something that seems a little trite, or that makes me think "ah, they were trying to get this particular message across" etc.

and these things combined two weeks ago, when we had the much-anticipated neil gaiman-authored episode of dr who. i can usually "believe" dr who regardless of knowing *why* they did this or said that, but in this case it was just too hard. i was fully conscious of the actors *as* actors, and the author behind the scenes. (it would probably have been ok if i werent a reader of his blog...) it actually felt sort of weird, because i'm used to seeing the doctor AS the doctor, and...the word "wooden" did go thro my mind. not because he was, but because it just didnt feel believable to me. but i'd say that was definitely my problem, not the actor's.

...i still enjoyed the spisode, tho.