Hey Mary, great work, your explanation is simple yet comprehensive. I love your meticulous dissection of the genre, but with so many rules that need to be followed beat by beat, doesn't it become too formulaic? And I know so many heist movies and novels generally go almost exactly along the tracks you laid here, but how am I supposed to surprise the reader if they already know there's gonna be a twist and that the protagonists knew about it all along? Does the appeal of a heist story come only from interesting characters, their skills and the uniqueness of the mark being heisted? P.S. Of all the Bond movies, you had to reference Moonraker ;)
Think of this as a recipe. You can mix and match ingredients and play with the proportions. The reader knows that there's likely going to be a twist, yes, but they don't know which of the things that go wrong is part of the secret plan. They also don't know who is involved in the secret plan. Maybe it's not your protagonist. Maybe one of their teammates pretended to quit in a huff as part of secret plan to be in a position later to save the day. Whenever you see a list like this, remember that it is a tool, not a set of rules.
@@MaryRobinetteKowal Thank you, that's exactly what I thought. It is a bit scary though that so many movies in the genre go through your list almost religiously :)
“Sometimes it’s a gondola chase.” Only if the author is REALLY good at her job. Which she is. Wonderful video. Caper stories are something I like, but I’m not sure I’d be able to pull off the hiding in plain sight bit.
I've enjoyed many heist movies but after watching this (and taking notes!) I feel like I missed important things about many of them. I am looking forward to re-watching a bunch and breaking them down in these terms!
I heard some good advice from... I think it was K. A. Emmons that you should only show the plan if the plan is going to fail. If the plan is going to succeed, just mention that they have a plan without showing the plan. Obviously readers will eventually catch on to this, ever since I heard it I certainly recognize it and see that it's mostly right. Therefore, after you train your audience of this, you can throw them a curve ball and mention the plan and make it go right.
Thomas Crown Affair, is a heist movie, they just don't reveal the goal until the last scene. John Wick 4, the duel, the oops, yeah that~ The story, One Fine Day, the fox tale, that, is the catalyst, the original story, the tail collector is not seen as the villain~ I made several heists to fix that story, each animal conducting the heist in its own unique way, all in sign language, so it's fast and hard hitting all the way through, the goal, the tail collection, everything works-out~
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Hey Mary, great work, your explanation is simple yet comprehensive. I love your meticulous dissection of the genre, but with so many rules that need to be followed beat by beat, doesn't it become too formulaic? And I know so many heist movies and novels generally go almost exactly along the tracks you laid here, but how am I supposed to surprise the reader if they already know there's gonna be a twist and that the protagonists knew about it all along? Does the appeal of a heist story come only from interesting characters, their skills and the uniqueness of the mark being heisted? P.S. Of all the Bond movies, you had to reference Moonraker ;)
Think of this as a recipe. You can mix and match ingredients and play with the proportions. The reader knows that there's likely going to be a twist, yes, but they don't know which of the things that go wrong is part of the secret plan. They also don't know who is involved in the secret plan. Maybe it's not your protagonist. Maybe one of their teammates pretended to quit in a huff as part of secret plan to be in a position later to save the day.
Whenever you see a list like this, remember that it is a tool, not a set of rules.
@@MaryRobinetteKowal Thank you, that's exactly what I thought. It is a bit scary though that so many movies in the genre go through your list almost religiously :)
@@MaryRobinetteKowal it’s hard for me to imagine what a heist would look like these days, with so much being digital….
Mary, you're a true master on storytelling! Thank you so much for the content! Outstanding!
Wow, thank you!
This is incredibly helpful. Your writing break downs and advice is always the best, thank you so much!
Listening to this not only is helping me break apart my own heist, but gave me some interesting ideas for twists.
“Sometimes it’s a gondola chase.”
Only if the author is REALLY good at her job. Which she is.
Wonderful video. Caper stories are something I like, but I’m not sure I’d be able to pull off the hiding in plain sight bit.
Thank you for catching that.
I've enjoyed many heist movies but after watching this (and taking notes!) I feel like I missed important things about many of them. I am looking forward to re-watching a bunch and breaking them down in these terms!
I hope this helps.
I heard some good advice from... I think it was K. A. Emmons that you should only show the plan if the plan is going to fail. If the plan is going to succeed, just mention that they have a plan without showing the plan. Obviously readers will eventually catch on to this, ever since I heard it I certainly recognize it and see that it's mostly right. Therefore, after you train your audience of this, you can throw them a curve ball and mention the plan and make it go right.
This is beautifully explained! Thank you! 🙏🏽
I'm glad it was helpful!
This was such a great resource. Thank you!
Thank you! I'm so glad you found it helpful
Thomas Crown Affair, is a heist movie, they just don't reveal the goal until the last scene. John Wick 4, the duel, the oops, yeah that~ The story, One Fine Day, the fox tale, that, is the catalyst, the original story, the tail collector is not seen as the villain~ I made several heists to fix that story, each animal conducting the heist in its own unique way, all in sign language, so it's fast and hard hitting all the way through, the goal, the tail collection, everything works-out~
Thanks for this insight. As a beginning writer, your teaching skills help me so much. Thank you.
You're very welcome!
This is a wonderful video full of great advice and editing! I would love to see more videos like this...and maybe Lee the Puppet? :)
This is really helpful.
this channel will be huge!
Thank you!