What I envision an idea LOOKS like…

Does that make sense?
If not (or not really), then you’re in luck cause I happen to have included a brief explanation of this opinion in a recent final essay for my Creativity class (FINA203; highly recommended btw).
Read the Essay/Explanation. (PDF, <300KB)
For the paper I chose to write a personal rumination on my own creative process, so it’s downright personal as a result, but thankfully you can skip to the first paragraph of page 4, where there’s another diagram and way more details.
(Though the ideas themselves I’ve been working on for ages, I’m somewhat reluctant to publish the work since the actual sentencing is pretty last-minute and awkward in some places. But whatever, I’m too lazy to rewrite it tonight, and besides, the worst that could happen would be you respect me less as a writer… which isn’t a high priority of mine just yet :P)