I almost lost this tumblr blog, as it was my favorite but I finished A Joyful Future and I was always wondering, what inspired you to create the series? More importantly, what helped you with creating Mom?
hey love! welcome back!!
i'm so glad you enjoyed the series! it was definitely a surprise. in all truth, it was never meant to be a series at all. the engagement and love from people who read it continue to inspire me as a build this world!
as for Mom, i don't view them as an oc (and i use neutral pronouns here purposefully - until there are genitalia-driven elements of the story, i keep the reader-character as neutral as possible!). i view them as something of a wishlist - human in a way i wish to be, but mostly as a foil for aaron and the person that he needs. i've done my best to channel the canon material and the response to hotch specifically as i build the reader for ajf. there are all of these moments where we all wish we could do something for aaron - be something for him, even - but alas the fourth wall exists. in creating the reader for ajf, i wanted to remove as much of the wall as possible and place all of us in the world so it could be as immersive as possible.
writing in a pandemic also influenced this series more than i've realized in the past. the uncertainty and tension in the world right now pushed me to create something that feels like a comfy blanket or soft place to lay your head. we all know, no matter how sad or scary the story can get, that everything will be alright.
thank you for asking, and thank you for being you <3 i love love love answering meta questions like these!!
hi tali ! this might have already been answered but im super interested in your writing process. have you always written ajf out of order? or was it originally written chronologically? your world building and story telling skills are so just so good and everything feels really intentional -🛸
hello my lil ufo!!
yes! I’ve always written ajf out of order, mostly because it wasn’t planned at ALL even a little. ever since it became A Thing, I’ve done my best to have the big picture in mind when I bring the pieces together. I have huge spreadsheets and many many people who help me out with the timeline, continuity, and details (namely @ssaic-jareau, @duchesschameleon, my best friend kate, and my now-mostly-inactive-on-here friend Kira @good-heavens-chris-evans)
i always look to build the details and foundations of this world in an intentional and thoughtful way. sometimes, I do have to go back and change shit because I changed my mind or it doesn’t work quite right. I try to think about it chronologically, if that makes sense, and write what strikes my fancy at any given moment. not sure if that made sense, but that’s what it is!
a joyful cheat sheet vol 2. - frequently asked questions
date updated: january 23rd, 2021
Where do I start?
The best place to start is the top of the masterlist! All the fics are arranged in chronological order. Most of the works don’t need a lot of context, but the arc of the story is designed to function chronologically.
How do you write this thing?
Out of order, mostly. Unless I’m working on a large arc, I will jump around to keep my muse fresh. It keeps me from burning out and it makes me happy that I can continuously add depth and detail without finding myself beholden to a chronology. The masterlist is arranged in chronological order, though!
When are you going to update?
I don’t answer this question or address it when anyone asks. I don’t know and I don’t plan! Everything is as much a surprise to me as it is to you and I will post all upcoming fics/posting schedules in the ajf updates tag. If nothing’s in there - I dunno what’s next! I’m working on a lot at once, a lot of the time.
If you want to see something, please submit a response to this form!
How do I join the Tag List?
Fill out this form!
Whats with the unlinked episode titles in the masterlist?
Those are episodes I’m planning to adapt for the AJF universe. Bascially, the episode titles are a beacon that says “Yes! I will do that eventually!”
What do I need to watch before I can enjoy AJF?
There are major spoilers for seasons 5, 6, 7, and 9 included in AJF. However, if you don’t mind the spoilers, you can enjoy the story with any degree of exposure to Criminal Minds. AJF starts right before season 3, if that helps.
Are you planning on writing X episode/covering X part of the Hotchner’s lives for the AJF Universe?
Probably!
You’re more than welcome to throw it in this Google Form that I put together! I don’t guarantee anything, but as long as it’s in there it’s on my radar and I am invested in including as much as possible in the ajf world!
Can you write x, y, z about mom’s life or have the kids visit mom’s hometown?
Nope! Mom/Reader is you! I have not made Reader’s character an OC on purpose, and I can’t write anything about their/your life without excluding others, so I can’t do it the way the story is structured.
Please feel free to share stories of your own traditions that you could see for yourself in the AJF world! I love hearing about them!
Do you have fancasts for the kids?
Nope! Again, I don’t make a habit of presuming anything about Reader/You. To fancast the kids, I would have to decide what Mom looks, like which I’m not goign to do. One of my goals in making this series is to make it as inclusive as possible.
Step one in that endeavor is separating my own experience from Reader’s as much as I can, so I can include as many people as I can! The more people who can see themselves in that role, the better!
Are you going to write Spencer’s Prison Arc?
Probably not. I’m not too keen on it as a narrative concept and I’m not into glorifying/romanticizing/not addressing character trauma for the hell of it.
Do you include warnings? What are possible triggers in AJF that I should be aware of?
I do include warnings on every fic. In general, expect language, canon-typical violence and mentions of assault/death/etc. Anything else specific will be outlined in the warnings section of each fic. Please feel free to ask if you would like anything specific tagged in the warnings.
All the 18+ content is warned in detail, so you know exactly what to expect before you start reading.
Is there smut or adult content in AJF?
There is, HOWEVER, none of it is plot relevant. If there is a huge, plot-heavy fic that has 18+ content, I will be sure to adapt a sfw version so everyone can enjoy. I’ve done this with Mean It, and plan on doing the same for a few others.
Is there an AJF inspo blog or pinterest board?
Yes! The inspo blog is @ajfinspo and you can dm me for the nsfw inspo blog as well.
What’s up with Aaron not being in the field after Season 9?
In the AJF universe, Aaron takes the promotion to Northeast Investigations and Operations Support Section Chief after 200, when Cruz is injured. Thus, he is only in the field on very special occasions and has more of a traditional working schedule.
But Tali! There’s a big time jump between The Sandman and Beautiful Disaster! Hank Morgan is actually born in September, but you have his birthday in March? What’s with that?
The timeline would have been 90 shades of fucked if I included the time jump, as I already had Isaac born that March and wanted Mom and Savannah to be pregnant at the same time (you know, for bonding purposes) and also wanted to have the added elements of dealing with A Beautiful Disaster with a new Hotchner baby. It’s an AU 🤷🏻♀️
Who’s Dean?
He’s a friend of Reader’s from college - he’s excellent, and makes a fair few appearances after Berry Hill. Dean will return!
What about Sean?
Uncle Sean steps his game up! We will see lots of Sean in the later installments of AJF.
Does the family still go into WITSEC because of Mr. Scratch?
Because Hotch essentially has a 9-5 working schedule, WITSEC is not necessary, as protective surveillance is much more effective with only one parent traveling for work. Also, I’m lazy and go with the Dungeons and Dragons rule of “don’t split up the party.”
Now that I've started putting words to paper, I've come to realize that keeping the timeline of Criminal Minds straight is a massive headache. I'm cursing getting inspired to try a reader insert across the show. How the heck did you go about the planning for your own timeline?
it’s a pain in the ASS and i LIVE AND DIE by my spreadsheets. i have a bunch of them that i use to keep track. i have some screenshots and more explanation under the cut. this turned into.....a Lot and this is definitely not necessary, but all tools that help my little brain!!
here are some spreadsheet samples!!
^^^ this is my master calendar. i have a printed copy on the wall of my bedroom that i annotate frequently, and it’s my favorite excuse to get out of my writing chair when i get stuck. this also helps me visualize “dead space” where fics are just...absent. like in 2019, for example. which is, rigth now, totally empty.
it’s organized by week, with the usual month placements marked out. the blue ribbons mark ongoing things i need to consider when writing - mostly for continuity
^^^ i fondly call this one “kid sheet” because it’s a master of all the kids and what the fuck they’re doing. aimz helped me build this and it’s been a lifesaver because there are SO MANY OF THEM and they do DIFFERENT THINGS
(sometimes i curse myself)
^^^ this is the MASTER master of all the fics. i use different colors and conditional formatting (which is a lifesaver) - the dark purple/pink is for stuff i’ve already posted, blue is for finished and scheduled, green is for WIPs, and baby pink is for not started. all i have to do is add a row and fill out the “status” column and the conditional formatting does the work for me.
the far columns are something i added later, when i realized i needed to keep track of revisions.
fuck that was a lot i’m so sorry pls let me know if you want any more info on any of these sheets. i have tabs for the idea form and the tag list that auto-update whenever someone fills out the google form :) i also have a fun one where i put all the data so i can look at the pretty graphs!!
ALRIGHT SO NOW THE TIMELINE
the way i started was kind of haphazard. i hadn’t finished the series when i wrote what would become the first installment (day off) so i had to kind of retcon it when it became a big thing. here was my (not so) quick rationale:
reader (who wasn’t called ‘mom’ generally yet lmao) wouldn’t be much more than 40 for the last kid (that didn’t exist yet - elliot was a creation of the ajf ‘verse along the way) so i wanted to give myself a little wiggle room
so i decided mom would be born in 1982, because that would put her at about 25 joining the bureau in 2007, which is about the time jj joined, so it was already plausible. in a perfect world, i would have mom from the beginning of the series, but i just couldn’t swing it.
than i said “okay there are three extra kids. there has to be time for those pregnancies, plausible dating/marriage/misc courtship timeline, also accounting for haleys death.” those were....some variables to figure out and i took pen and paper to it for HOURS
so i worked out the birthdays in 2016 and 2018 for isaac and the girls, figuring hotch started dating beth about two years and change after haley died (so late 2011, early 2012), a long dating period where they could really get married any time, and then a baby. whcih would put day off in about 2020. that was my benchmarker for a while.
i also had to fuck around with aaron’s age because in canon his birth year is sus (could be 1971, could be 1966. both are on papers somewhere), so i pushed it to 1968 (which is still pushing it to the younger side, frankly, but whatever) and called it a day
the rest of it just kind of came up as i went through it? that’s the nice thing about writing out of order - i can push and shove and wiggle things where i want them most of the time. i also!! stopped doing fics that cover huge swaths of time (for the most part) because i always want to give myself space to add stuff without a full-on revision.
whew. okay. so god bless you if you managed to get this far. i am more than happy to elaborate on anything if you have more specific questions, and i hope i answered this in a... i dunno... helpful way??
Hey... what program did you use to make Hayley’s letter in that one AJF chapter? I was thinking of using something like that for a Marvel fic I have in the works (that I’m putting on hold until next Christmas because it’s a holiday fic and I procrastinated on it big time)
i use SketchBook, which is an autodesk app for the ipad! i make everything on there with my trusty dusty apple pencil :)
and do it!! it’s such an awesome way to add dimension into your fics!
Hi, hey, hello, I am back (I had exams and then apparently I slept through the entirety of March and/or didn’t have a lot to say, I guess)
Anyways, I love how healthy Aaron and Mom’s fights are and I also love Mom’s friendship with Dean (really reminds me of my relationship with my best friend)
Two things:
1) will Beth stay in Aaron’s life in some capacity?
2) Dean calls Aaron “Hotchwheel” (or sth along those lines) in the fic with the fight about Beth. Is that a typo or was that an intentional nickname? Either way, it’s cute
Unrelated, I LOVED getting to see your spreadsheets so thank you for that highlight 😌
welcome back!!!!
1. not sure!
2. this is an intention nickname, along the lines of “hopscotch” from berry hill :) dean will have about a million nicknames for aaron over the course of this thing
oh of course!! i am always happy to share parts of the process with yall!
Okay, so I'm going through the AJF playlists and I'm at the Aaron one and number one you have impeccable taste and second do you think Aaron would be old enough for disco? From my calculations he would have been in his early tweens, so would they be kind of nostalgic or would it be the kinda thing for the kiddos and mom to tease him about that he was old enough to enjoy disco?
(omg thank you i love music so much)
i’ve gone round and round with this myself, but i think it’s kind of a fun thing for him - he would have been in late elementary/early middle school and popular music was the only thing on the radio, so he was absolutely exposed to it. i think he enjoys it as he gets older (like we all do with the advent of spotify and other streaming, etc), so mom teases him plenty. he also leans into it for the meme.
(canon!hotch is totally different because those clowns have him born in 1971, which doesn’t make sense at ALL if he graduated from LAW SCHOOL in 1990 like he said he did at one point - but i digress)
a lot of my music choices for hotch came from 70′s-80′s classic rock (obvi), and popular music from the mid-late 80′s (when he and haley were in high school. some of the older stuff is a little before his time (think like a couple of the first songs on the playlist - take it easy, sister golden hair, and renegade for example - they all came out in ‘72-75, so he would have been little) but it would have been something his mom listened to. (and ajf!hotch is his momma’s boy, i don’t make the rules) in my mind, evelyn kept a lot of records (and later cassettes) so that influences ajf!hotch’s music taste significant;y
the peak of disco (sorry - i’m being A History Person for a second) came with saturday night fever in 1977, when ajf!hotch was 8 or 9 years old, and faded from there into the early 80s. personally, i still have a connection to stuff from my pre-teen/childhood years (for me, it’s very early taylor swift, john mayer, green day, weezer etc.) so i stretched a little bit for him as well.
if you wanna know what tf we’re talking about, check out the ajf media folder!
Do you base any of your OCs off of anyone? I know you said Isabella’s parents fell prey to Twilight shenanigans when they named her. Is Emmett also inspired by Twilight lol. I shake with excitement every time I think about Caro’s beau, I’m so excited to read about them.
absolutely! i pull a lot from my life when i build characters, as any author does. because it’s fanfiction, i also take some liberties with other works in regard to names and archetypes (like emmett, brienne, and a couple others)
we’ll meet caro’s college boyfriend before we meet graham, but i promise the payoff will be good!!
