With Pierced finished, I kinda just want to ramble about it - the story, the process, my headspace when I was putting it together and my headspace now that it's done.
As mentioned in the very first chapter, Pierced was always meant to be three things: funny, smutty, and deeply self-indulgent. This was a hyperfixation that grabbed me by the fucking neck - and one that I was determined to let take me for the full, wild ride. It's got a lot of jokes and references made just for me, and if they made you laugh too, then great! It's got a lot of my favorite kinds of smut - and if that gets you off too, then great! etc etc.
I wanted this to be a story that reflects a lot of me and where I'm at in life. I've been on this site for 15+ years at this point, and my life has changed a fucking lot. Fic writing is an all-ages game, of course, but I see a lot of stories clearly written by younger folks interested in putting their characters through younger people problems (which is, of course, amazing! I wanna write some of that every now and then too! But...)
I wanted to write a story where the girls were like me - older, but still very much figuring it out. Some aspects of their lives are very solved. Coming of age questions around gender, sexuality, and monogamy (read: their lack thereof) were never part of what I wanted to explore. I was always happy to see a comment that said "Wow, I like how you just... made Rumi trans. It's not even a plot point, she's just trans, and the story keeps going." EXACTLY! While people DO figure those sorts of things out in their 30s (and far, far beyond that, of course), in here I can create a fun little space where those issues are simply not issues at all. So... what the hell is the conflict?
I spent a lot of time on this in my initial outlines. In a romance with no jealousy, no love triangles, no dashing rakes or creepy old men... what are we fighting against?
I tapped back into the basics - man vs man, man vs nature, man vs self. Man vs Nature when nature is the greater LA area is... pretty bleak. Earthquakes, fires etc are not the sexiest conflicts out there. Traffic is as boring to write as it is to sit in. etc.
My first conclusion was that I wanted there to be a throughline of Mira vs her family. My family is a HUGE source of trauma in my life - haha yay yippee etc - so it made sense to reflect a bit of that back into Pierced. My parents are not like Mira's, but exploring new ways a mom can ruin your life was fun, in a macabre sort of way.
I had rough drafts written for a few different potential scenes where her parents or siblings would call, show up, etc. A couple simply got cut for time, but for the most part, it never felt majorly important to have them. At this stage in her life, Mira views her family as annoyances - not in the sense that what they did in her life was minimized, but in the sense that she just wants them to go away. She's past the point of wishing they could reconcile. Like she said in the final chapter - she's almost 30. It's simply time to move on.
Robert served as a representative of sorts - a specter of her family's influence, and how that trauma still very much looms over her, even as she tries to grow past it. My goal was always to show less, feel more - no need to get explicit with what he did, just highlight how that makes Mira feel. Those scenes were the most nerve-wracking to write. Kill your local Robert TODAY!
Robert also served as a vehicle to bring up Pierced's primary conflict - Mira vs herself. Rumi and Zoey aren't perfect, but as mentioned, they've figured a lot of their shit out - they're further down their respective roads than Mira was at the start of the fic, both in their relationship together and in regard to their families etc. If I had to say what Pierced was about, it would be Mira finding her own space, with her own people, in her own time, in her own way. She builds her own family, which makes it A) even easier to see how fucked up hers was, and B) even easier to let them go. And they let her top! Woo!
Anywho, I really do hope you enjoyed the fic. It wasn't perfect, but nothing is, and 130k over nine months is more than I thought I would ever do - my goal once I realized it would be more than a chapter or three was to get a wordcount around that of The Hobbit (mid-90k). So shout-out to me for going above and beyond, I guess.
It's safe to say that the hyperfixation has ebbed a bit, but I was determined - even when I started, even when I knew I was well and thoroughly caught - that I would turn this into a sustainable, low-lift hobby. I don't wanna monetize, I don't wanna get good, I just wanna write. So I'm gonna keep going. Updates might be slow, but they'll come. Here and there I'll catch the bug something fierce and churn something out - here or in other fandoms, longform or in short bursts. Noire!Celine is well underway, so you'll probably see that start to publish within... I dunno. A month or two? I wanna get out ahead of it a bit, really stare at it, really try to make it good. It's very different from Pierced. I don't think it does me any favors to typecast myself, so to speak.
I'm rambling at this point, so... mwah. Thanks for reading. The engagement is an excellent dopamine hit, so please, spread my work far and wide. Let me know what you liked about the fic, or any of my fics, or whatever else. See you on the next wild ride.
