LATERAL/LINEAR MIND & BALANCE:

“Improvement makes straight roads. Crooked roads without improvement are roads of genius.”
William Blake

In the 1960’s Edward De Bono proposed the theory of LATERAL & LINEAR THINKING, describing several brainstorming techniques like CLUSTERING that allow the writer to develop new methods of imagining. Since then scientists have proven that the Corpus Callosum is the connecting point between both sides of the brain, and that these separate parts do operate quite differently upon our behaviour and expression.

LINEAR LEFT-BRAIN/The Sign Mind: Cumulative change. Logical, structural instinct, learnt knowledge, technique; socially conditioned worldview, methodical, rigid, wants yes/no answers. Objective thought, pulls toward cliché is poor at writing emotion but good at keeping it real, a sense of every day life. It defines the task at hand; identifying patterns, genres, stereotypes. Helps monitor the originality of lateral ideas; analyzing elements for the purpose of mimicry, good for 'keeping ideas REAL', checking for credibility gaps, schmaltz or anything over the top.

LATERAL RIGHT-BRAIN/The Design Mind: Catalytic change. Illogical, intuitive, inspirational, originality, energy, receptive to new ideas; idiosyncratic worldview, creative, random, reacts to stimulus. Subjective thought that hates cliché, is good at writing about emotions but pulls toward over-emotionalism and melodrama, has an instinct for myth and archetypes. It is good for generating lots of UNUSUAL ideas that are outside normal patterns and genres. It keeps us fresh in the way we think about emotional interaction.

There are many examples of LATERAL THOUGHT causing a quantum leap in human expression. The writers Charles Baudelaire and Edgar Allan Poe (circa 1830) probably suffered from carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning, a toxic gas used for illuminating lamps. Chronic CO poisoning would explain Poe's low tolerance for alcohol, recurring chronic fatigue, blackouts, alleged impotence, and hypersensitivity to sensory stimulation of all kinds: sounds, lights, odors, tastes and touch.

Modern authors J.G. Ballard, Samuel R. Delany and J.M.G. LeClézio also employ revolutionary tactics, unshackling their writing from authority, embracing madness as information, making it part of our own experience as we read their work. The legendary guitarist B.B. King learned to play by strumming a piece of wire he’d nailed to the verandah post of his home.

"What I want to do is make you see…"
David Wark Griffin