How does one write a character smarter than oneself?

How does one write a "genius" character? I don't mean a scientific genius, or someone who is a prodigious talent in math or chess or something like that. I mean the following scenario (or an equivalent):

1. Character G (for "genius") is a criminal mastermind who has just devised a brilliant scheme to make lots of money



2. G is pursued by Inspector A (for "average"), an everyman detective who knows G is up to something and is itching to catch him in the act, even though he doesn't know what the plan is. In fact, A can't even imagine it because it takes special insight and/or knowledge to have thought of it.

It seems like brilliance of G's scheme (and of G himself) is necessarily limited by the ingenuity of the author. And if the author can't come up with a sufficiently ingenious plot for G to hatch, it's hard for the reader to believe that an ordinary person couldn't have thought of it ("Really? That's his plan? And Inspector A never saw it? How stupid is he?")

Answer

You have several advantages over your characters:

• You get all the time you need to conduct research.


• You have time to think about each thing they will do or say. You get to think through the implications of the situation they're in, and the effects of their actions.


• You can constrain and adjust your story world so that your character can excel in it.


• You can construct the story to guide the reader away from areas that you know less about, and toward areas where you know more.



• Depending on the extent of your research and thought, most of your readers won't know as much as you do about the subject of your character's expertise. Mostly you don't have to be smarter than experts, you only have to know more than your readers. (Caveat: Some of your readers may be experts, and they may be annoyed at the flaws you and your characters exhibit.)


• Your readers want you to succeed in entertaining them. They will (sometimes, to some extent) give you the benefit of the doubt.


• The Writing Excuses podcasters offer this advice for speculative fiction: Take one unimportant detail and get it exactly right. This can lull readers into accepting that you know what you're talking about, which gives cover to make up all kinds of implausible stuff. This may also work for criminal enterprises.