Let it go

"Kipling believed that the author's intent is the least important aspect. What is important is that the author create his work. The later interpretation of it has nothing to do with him, being entirely in the hands of the reader."
Jorge Luis Borges (a prolific writer from Argentine, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. His work embraces the "character of unreality in all literature." He dabbled in everything from poetry to photography.

Borges makes clear a concept that is sometimes hard for an author to accept. Once your thoughts are formed into to words, the words are put on paper, and a random reader takes up the book, the author is no longer in control of his work. All written communication is at the mercy of the interpreter. This is a good and a bad thing. 
The writer must represent many things to produce meaning in the readers' minds, and feel confident enough to allow the reader to claim the images evoked and shape them to his own understanding.

To say windmill might bring up the image of an old wooden contraption on an dilapidated farm. Or, windmill might be visualized as rows and rows of tall, sleek steel generating energy on a wind farm.
  


^{When the reader is allowed to bring his own memories and experiences to a book, he or she invests in the story. The consumption of the book is a more satisfying adventure. 
A good description is only specific enough to make parameters for the reader to use in constructing his own image of the scene.}

Analysis paralysis

One of my writer friends introduced me to this term. It occurs when a writer becomes bound up in rules and can't write. As Mae West said, "I like restraint, if it doesn't go too far."

So know the rules so your story structure supports your tale.