Both Uses

lateral
in
How to Read Literature Like a Professor
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All I'm really saying is that we readers sometimes forget how long literary composition can take and how very much lateral thinking can go on in that amount of time.†
Chpt 10b *
And lateral thinking is what we're really discussing: the way writers can keep their eye on the target, whether it be the plot of the play or the ending of the novel or the argument of the poem, and at the same time bring in a great deal of at least tangentially related material.†
Chpt 10b

Definitions:

(1) (lateral)
situated at or extending to the side

or in football: a pass that is sideways or backwards relative to the line of scrimmage
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)