There is a character in your story who has a brilliant mind. But circumstances often contribute to how we apply our talents in our lives.

Denis Diderot said “Oh! how near are genius and madness! Men imprison them and chain them, or raise statues to them.”

What chances or choices might lead your character to turn their brilliance to ends that bring glory, but are destructive, — that are quick and bright, shiny with might, but keep them watching their back, or make it hard to sleep at night?

Or, what nourishes them underground, where there is no garish sunlight yet of recognition from the bloom of their talents, but where their ends may take a more healthy root, and bloom to a more truthful, nourishing, soul-filling fruit?