That's really interesting!
First, that the subconscious necessarily becomes THE 'place", though etherial--if in fact it can be described as a place like the sea and rocks on this photograph--where such problems become a 'tangy fruity brew' that ferment and become the 'spirit' (i.e. hard cider) while the conscious side deals with the existential (mundane, post office) side of life.
Second, the structural challenges of the work may not be resolved by the subconscious, because they may require actual physical intervention by the writer to resolve them on the page, and the work as a whole, as the work develops.
I think that the challenging novel 'INFINITE JEST' by the late, great, David Foster Wallace, has one of the most beautiful and difficult structures of the post-modern novel. He (i.e. David Foster Wallace) described it as a 'Sierpinski Gasket' which in itself is a mathematical wonder.
(wish I could be a fly on your study's wall!)
Cheers!

Thanks for the insight of your writing process. It always amazes me how these things work out.

Your picture taken at the coast looks like Pemaquid to me. Am I right? My wife and I are looking forward to our annual trip to Maine in a couple of weeks!

No, this was Two Lights, in Cape Elizabeth!

I remember the dad's book in A Summer to Die! And I remember his coming out of the study and saying that he'd completely reversed his opinion on a key part of the subject matter. At the time, I might have thought, "What? How could he not know his area of expertise?" Now, I think, Yes! That is exactly how it works!