Spent 3 hours trying to fix a plot hole that took 10 minutes to solve

I was writing a thriller and realized my protagonist's alibi totally fell apart in chapter 7. I sat there for three whole hours, rewriting scenes and moving timelines around like a maniac. Finally I got frustrated and just asked my partner to look at it, and she pointed out I forgot about a voicemail I wrote in chapter 2. Has anyone else wasted a whole afternoon on a problem that had a super obvious fix right in front of them?

3 comments

3 Comments

hall.nina1mo ago

Ever had one of those days where you're fighting with something and the fix is literally right in front of you? I do that all the time with my work van. Spent an hour trying to figure out why the water pressure was low, finally called my buddy and he just said "check the shutoff valve." Sure enough, I'd bumped it closed loading up that morning.

andrew_rodriguez1mo ago

Isn't it always the simple stuff that gets you? I've learned the hard way to check the obvious first, saves me a lot of head scratching.

the_fiona20d agoMost Upvoted

Funny how we always assume it's complicated when the fix is usually simple.