Blueprint

What have I figured out so far
I have a mental picture of the basic look and feel of the book
I have brainstormed a wide range of possibilities in terms of formatting and content

What is still left to accomplish
-Watch movies about heists
-More specific decisions must be made about the visual aspects, but this will come further into the process
-Decision of which chapters will be included
-The content for each chapter needs to be written
-Decide number of pages
-Drawings and photographs must be made
-Title must be chosen
-Choose exact colour scheme
-Shop for/decide on paper that will be used
-Basic grid/page layouts needs to be developed
-Select binding method
-Cover designs
-Slipcase

What is fuzzy in my mind
How I’m going to accomplish by the rest of the term

Where I'm drawing inspiration from
-Heist movies/stereotypes found within them
-Books, but I would like to look at more of them/more interesting ones

Some interesting resources

I came across a few websites that could be of help in planning out my chapters and developing content for my book:

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Heist_film
This site gives a definition to the heist movie, and categorizes things that happen within it

DIY: Build Your Own Heist Team
One of the chapters in my book will be about building a team, so this will be a handy resource

How To Make a Heist Movie
This site addresses the clichés that occur in the heist genre

How Realistic are Heist Movies? (pdf)
This article isn't necessarily of great use for my book, but it addresses an issue that my book will be exaggerating, which is how unrealistic many heist movies are (but my book will make it all seem plausible).

More chapter ideas

Some other ideas that could be addressed in the book are:

• splitting the loot
• bank accounts overseas
  
• getting your passports in order
• movies you should see

In order to think of more categories, I need to research general trends and stereotypes of heists in fictional situations (namely movies: Oceans 11, The Italian Job, To Catch a Thief, etc.)

Settled on an idea!

So after these weeks of contemplating, I believe I've got the one... my book will be an offbeat take on what one needs to do to carry out a heist.

My original idea was to follow a series of jewel heists that have occurred, and provide the reader with details on how they were executed. If the perp was eventually caught it would detail ways in which they could have gotten away with it. The diagrams would have featured blueprints, maps, and even flow charts of strategy (perhaps a few classic mug shots). The avaliability of resources, and my lack of connections to jewel thiefs made gathering information for such book very difficult. Hence the new and improved idea...

This new idea would be like "heist 101" except featuring selective information in a more humourous form. Short chapters would include things like:

• gathering your team (with stereotypic profiles)
• your competition
• don't make these mistakes (the fallings of criminal masterminds)
• breaking into alarm systems
  
• off limits
• basic heist attire
• risk vs. reward
• driving like a maniac
• how to attain and read blue prints (first make sure its the right way up)

These are just some of the ideas, and I welcome suggestions!