6 years of Muay Thai kickboxing says I DO know how to defend myself . And ask THIS guy how effective a swift right hook to the chin really is . Oh wait you can ' t cause he GOT KNOCKED THE FUCK OUT . UmICgCcSvbg <| sep |> What I did when I found myself in that state was initially developing a separate , less convoluted setting , then scrapping the old world and only preserving the content I wanted to save . I suppose to put it in your boat metaphor . rather than board up the holes , make a new raft out of those boards , abandon ship while taking the essential goods to sail onward . That ' s from my experience , though I ' ll admit that my reboot is fresh enough that I ' m still on the initial worldbuilding stage . <| sep |> Ooooooh , I finally get to use this .