4/30/2016: On Clustering (For Writing)

I need to nuance my understanding of the purpose of clustering. We learned it for random vignettes, but this is not its only usage. This was merely a tool to learn the process and to practice it.

Because the right brain does not order or sequence or define, because it seeks to explore, to make new connections—to join numerous sprigs into some unknown end, it seems to work best without any agenda in place—any known end. Else, you are sequencing, defining, ordering things to fit an agenda, and that’s the left brain. The right brain works when you play, when you don’t know where you’re going but delight at exploring and arriving somewhere new.

Perhaps it works when you take one known endpoint and connect it to something else in an unknown way—seeing how a person might connect something to another something. That seems feasible. I wonder if Rico has anything about that. She did use clustering to arrange her book, and she had the agenda of writing an instructive book about clustering, soooo…

I need to learn to trust the free, generative side. For instance, if I have something I want to include in a piece, but I want to leave myself to explore (right brain), I should just let myself go on doing so, even when I don’t see how that thing will be included, merely because the design mind likely has it in there even when I don’t see it. I just need to keep going until it pops out. I have seen this a few times, actually. Just because you aren’t consciously in control (sign mind) doesn’t mean you’re not on target. Both sides of your mind are still you and work toward your goals.