I spent all November trying to drag this out of my brain where it has been living rent free. This is my NanoWrimo story that failed to exist when I needed it to. I’ve talked about it before, but now I can finally say more.
The prologue of sorts is now up on AO3.
I realized early on that I didn’t want to write a long story. But I also didn’t want to just write one or two short stories and call it a day. I’ve done it before, and I haven’t been every happy with doing that.
I started The Immortal Genius the same way I always do, with a brain dump. By that, I mean I open a new document (this time on Google Drive) and just write whatever comes to mind. I didn’t plan out what was going to open the story, how I was going to structure it, or even where the natural end point was. I just wrote single lines and quick plot ideas. From there I took a few lines and started to plan.
I came up with four plot ideas quickly: Reid’s introduction into immortality, conversations on Malta, the aftermath of Booker’s betrayal, and the family coming back together.
For obvious reasons, I immediately decided to not do that last plot idea yet. Starting a story in the middle is one thing, starting at the end is boring. Instead I tried to start at the beginning, but for some reason, it just didn’t flow. By now, so many people has done stories featuring that Hankel scene in Criminal Minds, and I just don’t think I could do it justice.
So, instead, I decided to combine the first three ideas. Flashbacks and introspection are a thing!
Unfortunately, because I wanted to get it out, I cut my planned last scene with drunk!sassy!Booker and sleepdeprived!Reid discussing a certain someone’s choices of late. That will be apart of the second story, where I also hope to at least have Nile have a conversation with Reid. They have a thirteen year age difference, but I’d really love to write a millennial vs the intellectual, or rather, Ms. Tech vs Mr. Anti-Tech. Because why not.
I would also love to have Nicky and Joe make appearances, but I think I’ll wait until the third part for that. Not that I don’t love our Immortal Husbands, but I’m kinda enjoying making these shorter pieces.
I’m planning on having the BAU make appearances in the next fic, mostly because having Reid be worried on the plane is so much fun. But we will see how it goes. If not soon, they will appear.
I’m also thinking of new plots and looking from prompts to play with. Reid’s been around for about five years now, and there has to have been some times he’s unintentionally joined in on the Guard’s missions. Plus, I want their reactions to some of this more… dangerous escapades. (Liberty Ranch, the Anthrax incident, the Barton incident…) And I really want to have the Guard cross paths with the BAU, but that’ll be later on.
For now, I’m going to take my time. I want to build into this world. And I’m having fun with it. We shall see where this takes me.
Until next time!
