Artists step away from the easel to judge the work. Some problems only make sense from across the room.

Being too close to something makes you a bad judge of it. When your nose is against the canvas you can see the brushstroke and not the picture. Stepping back is not giving up on the problem, it is changing the one thing you can change, which is your distance from it. The shape becomes visible when the details stop shouting.

With whatever you are stuck on, build in distance on purpose. Finish the draft on Tuesday and read it on Thursday, or explain the problem to someone who knows nothing about it. What was invisible at arm’s length is usually obvious the second time.