Rant: My neighbor's kid described a story idea and it made me question my whole process

I was at the park in Springfield yesterday and overheard this 10-year-old telling his friend a story about a lighthouse keeper who finds a key that opens doors to different weathers. It was so simple and cool, no overthinking. Meanwhile, I've been stuck for weeks on a fantasy novel outline, building a magic system with like 15 rules. It just hit me that maybe I'm planning the fun right out of it. How do you balance having a solid outline with keeping that spontaneous spark?

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the_andrew6h ago

My cousin tried to write a cookbook and spent six months on the perfect table of contents. Never wrote a single recipe. Sometimes you just gotta start building the shed even if the blueprint is messy.