Yeah this is a problem I face too. Here's what I do when I have a somewhat vague idea for a DROD room (not that this is a great process or anything, but this may help possibly.)
I have a hold that I use to basically keep ideas for rooms that are not quite ready for prime time. I think a lot of folks have something similar. Mine starts with *** just so that it's always on top of the hold menu when I go to build.
If I have a really vague idea for a room I'll often start by placing the elements that go with my idea into a room along with possibly a scroll with some sort of explanation. I'll try to build any widgets that may belong to the idea, but I'll often leave them disjointed. I'll often let the room sit like that for a few days or more so that the idea can develop a bit.
So at this stage I have a room or two with some desultory set of elements and possibly some thoughts on what to do with them. Usually I'll try to have an empty room next to this idea room where I try to put the parts together. When I'm doing this I usually have the solution or solution method in mind and try to put parts together that enforce it. I'll often try one arrangement out then decide to scrap it completely and start over. Sometimes I'll have aesthetic look in mind already and try to fit the parts of the puzzle in to make that work. This will occasionally result in neat new linchpins, but sometimes it will just make things awkward and annoying and I'll have to start over from scratch.
One thing that I'll emphasize is to leave some scrolls around in the room reminding yourself of what the end goal or general idea is. I have a ton of rooms that have interesting assortments of elements in them but I can't for the life of me remember what the original puzzle idea I had was! So leaving scrolls or some other clear sort of reminder is a good idea. Hope this helps!
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