ABSTRACT
If we are to be successful writers, it seems we must be prepared to become a little insane. We must be somewhat mad to take on the activity in the first place, but we also have to destabilise our minds in order to shake up the commonplace, play with ideas, look for new insights. It is easy to see how this can become a way of life for professional writers. What we researchers might aim for, I would suggest, is a kind of controlled madness. In this way, we might gain the benefits without suffering the consequences. So what is involved? And how can we become mad without becoming certifiable?
