With my February release,
Invisible,
I had a ‘lucky accident’.
The heroine had a certain mannerism
and then in the last few chapters of writing,
I found out why.
It wasn’t planned.
It simply happened
and it was magic.
Product development is like that.
Think of the 3-M Post-it note legend.
Heck, think of most great products.
There’s a lot of work and thinking and then…
bam!
Something unplanned and ‘lucky’ happens
to make it work.
Robert Altman has a technique
for increasing the possibility of lucky accidents.
“We normally shoot a few takes,
even if the first one is terrific,
because what I’m really hoping for is a ‘mistake.’
I think that most of the really great moments
in my films were not planned.
They were things that naturally occurred
and we said,
‘Wow, look at that—
that’s something we want to keep.’
That’s when you hit the truth button
with the audience.”