Infrared is not just a fanfiction. It is a story about loss, grief, and love based on a real experience that happened to the author.
While I didn't lose my mother, I lost my brother, which is just as traumatic. To make the grieving process easier, I decided to write about my experience through a franchise I love—in a book that is just as much science fantasy as fanfiction and should be treated that way. Aside from that, I also wanted to improve on Scarlet and Violet's ending and make the characters more human, and I believe I accomplished that.
This story would have never been possible if it wasn't for my family and grief counselor. My family told me to keep my brother's memory alive, and my counselor told me to do so with something I love: writing. I started with letters to my older brother and then a poem. Eventually, I began to play around with story ideas and came up with Infrared.
I cope through writing, which has allowed me to not fall victim to complicated grief like Turo or Broken Heart Syndrome. Significant research went into creating Infrared's plot and developing the characters (not just Pokémon research). This story is short, but it's powerful, complicated, and the amount of work I put into it is no joke. I wrote the first and second drafts back-to-back, with only a one-week break in between.
Infrared isn't a perfect story, as no book is, but I hope to teach people about grief, how to handle it, and how to move on while keeping your loved one's memory alive. That is the main lesson I'm trying to share in this piece.
With that said, I hope you enjoyed Infrared!
- Victoria/Viktoria