Writing Tip: Clustering

search.creativecommons.org, Bob Nicols

"Just as many natural forms come in clusters--grapes, lilacs, spider eggs, cherries--so thoughts and images, when given free rein, seem to come in clusters of associations."--Gabriele Lusser Rico

I'm a believer in clustering--the writing kind that is, though I do like grapes, lilacs and cherries, too (spider eggs, not so much).  Surprising insights have popped for me when I've played around with the technique.

Gabriele Lussen Rico describes clustering in Writing the Natural Way, Using Right-Brain Techniques to Release Your Expressive Powers. "Nature," she writes, "operates by profusion. Think of the nearly infinite numbers of seeds that fall to earth, only a fraction of which take root to become trees; of those five thousand or so drones that exist solely to ensure the fertilization of one queen bee...Similarly, human beings engaged in the creative process explore an astronomical number of possible patterns before settling on an idea.

"Clustering is the master key to natural writing. It is the crucial first step for bypassing our logical, orderly Sign-mind (Rico uses this term for left brain thinking, Design-mind for right) consciousness to touch the mental life of daydream, random thought, remembered incident, image, or sensation."

In clustering, "a nucleus word or short phrase acts as the stimulus for recording all the associations that spring to mind in a very brief period of time." After setting forth that nucleus word, the writer is encouraged to "simply let go and begin to flow with any current of connections" that come to mind, writing them down rapidly, "each in its own circle radiating outward from the center in any direction." Connect each new word with a line to the preceding circle. When something new and different strikes you, begin again at the central nucleus.

Exploration. Patterns. Associations. Connections. The stuff that writers are made of!

In my case, I needed to play this past week after feeling ideas were stalling and drying up. I turned back to clustering to see if I could prove Rico right when she states, "the initial anxiety will soon disappear, and in its place will be a certain playfulness."

The results? Insights into a blocked character sketch. Better visualization of a picture book idea. Playtime to see where an idea for a short inspirational piece might go. I was so excited at the results that I shared the developments with my writer's group when we met the other day.

Yep, I'm a believer in clustering. Are you? What techniques do you use to replace writing anxiety with a sense of play?

In case you'd care to read more on the subject of clustering, you might want to check out:
Gabriele Rico
Writer's Web
Meade Communications
About.com: Clustering

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Duck, Duck, Goose: Left Brain vs. Right Take 2

"Here is the key to natural writing: the melodies must come first." 

                                                                   --Gabriele Lusser Rico, Writing the Natural Way

They played Duck, Duck, Goose, the little ones, at Angelica's 4th birthday party the other day. Remember this game? The designated child runs around the circle of other children who are seated on the ground. "Duck, duck...duck, duck..." she says as she taps each child on the head in order around the group. "Duck, duck... GOOSE!" On cue, the one tapped at that point jumps up (or is supposed to!) and chases the first, trying to catch her before she can reach her original spot and sit down fast. If child #2 fails to tag child #1, then child #2 is now it. And another cycle of "Duck, duck...duck, duck...GOOSE" begins again.

The day was beautiful and sunny. The guests so much fun. And the activities continued through the afternoon--with a pinata, crafts, birthday cake (of course) and the opening of gifts. All exciting stuff  for kids and adults alike (until, that is, overstimulation kicks in and everyone crashes).

And yet, it is the Duck, Duck, Goose game that has stayed with me. I think maybe because I'm still on this left brain/right brain kick that I explored in my last post (here) and can't quite let go of yet. What am I seeing? I'm seeing:

Duck (tap), Duck (tap), Duck (tap)...Logical. Analytical. Objective.
GOOSE!...Intuitive. Thoughtful. Subjective.
Duck (tap), Duck (tap), Duck (tap)...Linear. Sequential. Rational.
GOOSE!...Creative. Random. Patterns.
Duck (tap), Duck (tap), Duck (tap)...Clear-cut. Piece-by-piece. Editor.
GOOSE!...Insights. Originality. Discovery.

Mary Lou Carney, author and senior editor of Guideposts magazine once described the difference this way: "Be aware you have sequential thinking and you have random thinking. Sequential thinking reminds you to buy stamps. It lets you put your files in order. Your random thinking is what lets you do divergent thinking--lets you think of wild,crazy things." (Hmmm, children's games, anyone?) "And," she contends, "It's a fine line between having the sequential keep you on track professionally, but indulging in the random. I'm telling you that it's the random that will set you apart."

Gabriele Lusser Rico, in the book, Writing the Natural Way, Using Right-Brain Techniques to Release Your Expressive Powers, describes the two aspects of creative thought this way: "I have adopted the terms Sign mind and Design mind," she writes, "because they characterize one of the most fundamental distinctions between the working of the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Research has shown that the left hemisphere, or Sign mind, is largely occupied with the rational, logical representations of reality and with parts and logical sequences. It has the capacity of ordering thought into communicable syntactic form--the way words are put together to form sentences. It acts as critic, censor, and error corrector.

"By contrast, the right hemisphere, or Design mind, thinks in complex images; it patterns whatever it encounters, including language, which, instead of clearcut signs, become designs...Moreover, the thought pattern characteristic of the right brain lends itself to the formation of original ideas, insights, discoveries. We might describe it as the kind of thought prevalent in early childhood, when everything is new and everything has meaning." (Ah, children again!)

Rico adds: "I might say that your Design mind attends to the melody of life, whereas your Sign mind attends to the notes that compose the melodies." Thus her key to natural writing: "The melodies must come first."

There we go. In order for our writing to sing, we need to activate the right side of our brains. So, though the duck has it's work to do, we also need to let the goose free to do her work, too.

Here's to the goose in all of us :-)

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