So I’m trying to write a story about a heist. The (possible) idea is that everyone else has magic or superpowers or amazing future tech, and he just has “ordinary” resources and skills. Is there a good way to come up with a clever item or plan for him? I know if you were going to do a murder mystery, you’d research poisons, for example. How do the Oceans 11 writers do it?
One way is to find a real heist and embellish it with more interesting characters, more conflicts to overcome, and an exciting conclusion where the heisters are caught, or better yet, successfully implicate some of those magical and superpowered people who are always lording it over your protagonist.
IIRC, a movie in the ‘70s built the plot around the irrelevant details of a heist: what mattered was that the bank teller knew it was coming, and so he put aside money for himself, and once the heist happened — however it happened — he just blandly told the authorities that, oh, yeah, X amount was stolen.
Perhaps those with the superpowers have some blindness or weakness as a result of their superpower, but your thief does not have that blindness?
Another option is to have the heist be, in and of itself, a con. Similar in a sense to Ocean’s 11. Especially if the normal is a “Face” character, whose skill is smooth talking and being convincing, they don’t need any powers. For that matter, in a world where multiple people have magic, powers, and super-tech, I would assume that there are scans and checks for such beings.
For the normal to come in, scan nice and clean, they’ll likely be more trustworthy in the common person’s eye, which may be key if the mark is a normal as well.
This reminds me that one relatively simple way to steal money from a bank is electronically. In a world full of magical and superpowers bank security might be weak as they’ll rely on these unnatural abilities to detect theft and fraud. A skilled programmer, like myself but slightly more evil, could figure out how to drain money from a financial institution in a manner that the most clever magicians and supercreatures would never bother to develop the skills needed to uncover the plan. I would assume Reed Richards and Dr. Manhattan types would be too busy dealing with alien invasions and the like to bother with a common bank heist. And of course I would do something that implicates those stuck up superdupers and abracadabists in the crime.
The Silent Partner . The girlfriend’s head floating in an aquarium still gives me nightmares.
I’ve been watching the old Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV shows (on Peacock), and some of the episodes have interesting heists and scams. Some of my favorites are The Matched Pearl (7/29), The Twelve Hour Caper (7/34), The Dusty Drawer (4/33), and The Diamond Necklace (4/20). Now, I know you don’t want to copy stories directly, but they have some interesting ideas that come with a few twists, usually involving an ordinary person getting the better of an arrogant person.
Don’t forget, stealing from one source is plagiarism, but from a hundred sources it’s research.
My first thought when I read the title was “Read about every heist you can find.”
The way I write is, read all that, watch some shows/movies/youtubes, then set it aside. Let it percolate for a few days… then, when you sit down and write your own, it’ll be “informed” by all the stuff you’ve read or seen.
One thing would be to be very cognizant of stuff you see and hear in your every day life.
I’ve been spending a lot of time in hospitals and medical offices lately and it’s amazing to me how much stuff you can overhear. Names, addresses, birthdates, cell phone numbers, maladies, health histories. I got all that info on several people today just taking my mom to have an endoscopy. I also overheard a whole job interview in a “private” room next to the waiting room.
You can also go almost anywhere in a hospital if you’re a boring-looking white lady who walks around like she knows where she’s going. And everyone in a hospital from the janitors to the doctors are wearing scrubs and masks. Anyone can buy scrubs and masks! Granted, you’re not getting into anything good without a RFID badge but you can still be in a lot of places and gather a ton of info.
You can probably observe in real life some interesting things at casinos or art galleries or banks or grocery stores. Perhaps not people NOT following security procedures but you can see procedures and imagine what would happen if something was done wrong. A door propped open. A window not locked. Someone letting someone else through without a badge.
Then you can turn those observations into points that lead to a successful heist.
Completely serious question: are you a fan of Rick and Morty?
Instead of robbing a bank, steal it. See also the Donald E Westlake novel (& movie) BankShot
An aging guard once mentioned to me that each of the security doors in the building that he’d soon retire from working at remained locked shut unless the right special cardkey was used at each spot.
“Of course, if there’s a fire, they all swing open, so everyone can get out,” he added.
I never did figure out if he was trying to recruit me or entrap me.
I hear Danny Thomas keeps a ton of cash on his person. You could try knocking over his dressing room at Desilu studios.
Try working backwards.
When writing the story, start at the end (whatever clever end you want) and then fill in details backwards that plausibly support what you already wrote.
Harlan Ellison got his ideas from an ideas service in Schenectady and every week like clockwork they sent him a fresh six-pack of ideas for 25 bucks.
Perhaps you can use the same service. I expect asking for a bespoke idea like a heist might cost a bit more.
No. I tried it, but the animation style and Rick’s character just turned me off. Why?
Now that sounds like a cool job, coming up with good ideas all day. Reminds me of Robert Redford’s job in 3 Days of the Condor.
There’s a whole episode deconstructing heist cliches. I’m not sure it would be helpful other than to point out what to avoid - most notably, the phrase “You son of a bitch - I’m in!”.
Ah! Well, my character patterns himself after a riverboat gambler, so if they said that back then, I might include it!
I would start with the premise that all the “magic” people despise the “mundanes”.
The magic people would assume that any theft must be magical, so a mundane robber with a jackhammer or an expert con artist may be able to use that to their advantage.