Let me extend your analogy. I love to bake, and I’ve often had people ask me about baking bread. If someone came to me and said “I want to bake bread and I have these ingredients (story idea)” I wouldn’t say, “Well, you’re ingredients list includes eggs and milk, and those aren’t a part of white bread, so you can’t use them.” I would say, “Well here are two easy recipes, one is for white bread, but the eggs and milk don’t fit in this recipe, so if you want to use them, you’re better off following the challah recipe.”

I wouldn’t recommend a beginner making croissants (monomyth), until they’ve mastered some easier recipes. Hell I’ve been baking for nearly 10 years and my croissants still come out off more often than not! But letting a beginner know that there is a selection of easy recipes, and they can pick the one that they like best is not the same thing as encouraging them to get clever.

Sure, when you’ve published a dozen best sellers you can do what the heck you like. But the single biggest mistake made by beginners (IMHO) is forgetting to have a structure to their story, so they just go rambling off into the wilderness in the hope that one or two readers might follow – and, when you’re beginning, following the recipe is a good way to start. You can always get clever later!

And I guess I could publicly recognize every single person who’s ever helped me with anything in every post I write, but that would make for extremely long pos

I’ll continue to publicly recognize those people as I see fit. Thanks!

*Note*
you should publicly recognize the people who helped you. who knows, you might need their help again one day.