I am a beginner interested in Haskell, and I have been trying to implement the flatmap (>>=) on my own to better understand it. Currently I have

flatmap :: (t -> a) -> [t] -> [a]  
flatmap _ [] = []  
flatmap f (x:xs) = f x : flatmap f xs  

which implements the "map" part but not the "flat".
Most of the modifications I make result in the disheartening and fairly informationless

Occurs check: cannot construct the infinite type: a = [a]  
    When generalising the type(s) for `flatmap' 

error.

What am I missing?