Are you writing a gangster novel and need some help?
In this article, we’ve included 5 top tips on how to write a mafia story. Read on to get some inspiration!
1. Set it in an American metropolitan city.
How it helps
Whenever a reader thinks ‘Mafia,’ they usually think of one of three cities: New York, Las Vegas, or Chicago. While this is true for the classic Mafia of Godfather or Goodfellas fame, where the city is set largely depends on what kind of Mafia the story is about. For example, the American Yakuza is mostly found in California while the Russian Mafia is said to have a large presence in Philadelphia.
What’s important is that the city is large enough to house multiple organized crime families without calling too much attention to them from the police. The skyscrapers and big city life will be enough for readers to recognize how and why the Mafia family were successful there.
How to include it
While any large American metropolitan city could work for the Mafia, you need to consider what the Mafia’s main business will be. If it’s money, then casino cities like Las Vegas or Atlantic City might work best. If it’s power or influence, then New York City or Chicago might be better because they have access to political structures like the United Nations and international embassies. If it’s drugs, then maybe go off the beaten path with Miami or Los Angeles, as they are known in-roads for the drug trade; these other cities also open the story up to engaging with other forms of organized crime like Mexican drug cartels.
2. Define the family structure.
How it helps
Organized crime is organized because it has a very defined structure. The Mafia always has a Don, or the head of the family, surrounded by supporting members. There is the Mafioso or Lieutenants, seconds-in-command who support the Don and carry out his actions. There are then lower bosses beneath the Lieutenants who control particular areas or groups of people within the family.
There are the advisors, also known in Italian as consigliere, who help the Don make decisions; they often have a network of spies and informants loyal more to them than the Don. Then there are the henchmen who carry out the orders of the higher ups, whether that be intimidation, murder, or receiving illegal goods. They are often the most at risk of being caught by police and thus are the least trusted by the Don and men close to him.
How to include it
Map out who your Mafia family is as a hierarchy, from the top down. Who is your Don and who serves him directly? Plan out which family members can absolutely be trusted and which might turn or add intrigue to your plot.
Don’t forget to include why these characters are dynamic to the plot. Think about Joe Pesci’s character in Goodfellas; while he was completely loyal, his propensity to murder out of anger caused more problems than he solved sometimes.
3. Define the motive.
How it helps
When the Mafia families start fighting amongst each other, they usually do it for one of three reasons: money, revenge, or power. Oftentimes, all three reasons end up coming into play. Maybe the fighting began because of a money deal gone wrong, but now it’s about gaining power or to exact revenge for breaking the family’s trust. These reasons also tie deeply into the Mafia’s sense of loyalty and family: break either of those codes and you’re heading for a pair of concrete shoes and a swim in the river.
How to include it
Now that you’ve plotted out the families and how they relate to each other, decide how they might intimidate each other. Who wants what your main family has? How might they go about getting it?
Decide which of the family members are the weakest and how they might be exploited, then decide which of the other Mafia families would exploit them and how. For example, in Goodfellas, the three main characters break the trust of their main Mafia Capo by secretly venturing out into their own drug business, which ends up also cutting into their Capo’s profits and power. The story becomes about trying not to be discovered by the Capo and avoiding retribution if and when they are.
4. Identify the protagonist’s role.
How it helps
Most good Mafia stories have a protagonist who starts at the bottom and works their way up. This allows the story to explore all the characters and their roles naturally. As the hero learns the ins and outs of the Mafia family, so too does the reader. The protagonist’s backstory can also help add more tension and drama to the main plot, especially if it pits the protagonist against another member of the Mafia family.
How to include it
Once you have a motive for the story, decide how the protagonist fulfills that role. Is the protagonist an insider on the rise, an outsider brought in, or an undercover cop? Do they want to be part of the Mafia or are they looking to escape from it? Who are they in conflict with and why?
Your protagonist needs to be the one putting the Mafia family at risk somehow. Define what it is about their role that threatens everything the Mafia family has built up to this point. This is separate to what drives the Mafia family to commit their crimes in the story; this is a personal motive, one that intentionally complicates what the Mafia family want to accomplish.
Use that personal motive to add suspense to the main plot: will the protagonist get their goal or will the Mafia?
5. Add a romantic subplot.
How it helps
The Mafia are humans just like the rest of us, and just like the rest of us, their love lives often conflict with their lives of organized crime. In some cases, like the Sopranos, the romantic interests become just as invested and important to the crime family as the members themselves.
In others, the romantic interest is what causes some tension because they aren’t part of that life or are even from another crime family. This causes the reader to wonder: will the character abandon their family for a new life with their love? Having a romantic interest, even if just a small one, creates wonder for the reader on how the story will play out separately from the Mafia family’s needs and desires.
How to include it
Who the romantic interest will be in your story largely depends on who the protagonist is and what the motive is for the overall plot. If your protagonist is an undercover cop, then the romantic interest should be someone close to the Don so that the protagonist is torn between loyalty to their love and loyalty to their mission. If your protagonist is someone working their way up through the ranks, a love interest from a competing crime family would add intrigue. The protagonist might have to choose between their love and their Mafia family, especially if the love interest chooses something different.
You might also find the following articles useful:
5 Tips for Creating Believable Villains
How to Write a Crime Short Story
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