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That one beta reader who called my fantasy map 'a potato'

At a local writer meetup in Tucson, I showed this guy my carefully drawn continent map and he just squinted and said it looked like a spud with extra bumps. He wasn't trying to be mean, he was genuinely confused because I'd labeled every mountain range as 'the X Mountains' like five times. That little comment made me realize I was overcomplicating my worldbuilding to hide weak plotting. Has anyone else had a throwaway observation from a stranger that suddenly made their story structure obvious?
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dylanmurray
Wait so you had every mountain range named the exact same thing? Like five separate places all called "the X Mountains" and you thought nobody would notice? Thats kind of hilarious but also super relatable. Did the potato comment actually fix the plot problem though, or did it just make you realize the map was lazy? What did you change first, the names or the actual story structure?
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