Are you a literal thinker often piecing details together in a logical fashion?

Or does your mind operate through images, concepts and patterns?

In the 1970's, neuroscientist Roger Sperry conducted studies on split brain operations---a severing of the corpus callosum, the bundle of nerve fibers that connects the two hemispheres of the cerebral cortex. He discovered that the brain has two very different ways of thinking. One (the right brain) is visual and processes information in an intuitive and simultaneous way, looking first at the whole picture then the details. The other (the left brain) is verbal and processes information in an analytical and sequential way, looking first at the pieces then putting them together to get the whole. His conclusions were immediately placed in our culture and termed "right-brainers" and "left-brainers."

In her book, An Alchemy of Mind, science-poet Diane Ackerman writes, "...our mind isn't a tug-of-war with the left brain on one side and the right brain on the other, but a collaboration, an open exchange."

Use the following games for your conceptual right brain to develop a specific idea or just to shake up the old corpus callosum.

The Classic Rico Cluster
Write a word. Circle it. Write an associated word nearby. Circle that word, and draw a lie back to the original word. Keep going, building up a spider web of word associations, until you see a pattern. When the 'trial web shift' or the more creative side of your mind guides, you'll be dying to write it into an essay, story or poem.


Cagean Chance Operations
To achieve true randonness, composer-philosopher John Cage said, you must have a plan. Pick out your favorite book, go to every tenth page and write down the first full word on that page. Study your list of random words and see if any patterns cone out. No? Pick out your favorite and use it to start a cluster.


The Vaughnean Doodle
Draw a series of random lines that intersect like roads on a map (don't think too much). When they begin to assume shapes, throw in some universal facial elements: eyes, mouth, ears, nose. Now study the creature you've created and write down who he is, what he's been doing, how he's feeling---or just use hm as the main character in a story.


The Amazing Technicolor Dreambook
Keep a notebook and pen on your nightstand. Immediately upon waking, write down anything you can remember from your dreams. None of it has to make sense---this is just your right brain's way of processing the day's memories.

---Writer's Digest 'Writer's Basics,' Meeting of the Minds by Michael J. Vaughn

More on Corpus Callosum...

• So if I'm Left-Handed, Does This Mean My Right Brain is Dominant?

• How is the Right Brain / Left Brain Concept Relevant to Artists?

• What are the Characteristics of Right Brain and Left Brain Thinking?

• Is it Better to be Right Brained than Left Brained?