Featured Story of the Week: To Wed a Princess

To Wed a Princess is an incredible story written by arwen undomiel. In this week's Featured Story, we take a closer look at this wonderful work.

Give us a brief summary of To Wed a Princess.

Brian Haner is sent by his gang leader to seduce Britain's princess, Eloise. However, it doesn't quite go as planned because she has his intentions figured out pretty quickly, for the most part, and starts to make things difficult for him. It becomes a battle of wills between the two.

What inspired you to write To Wed a Princess?

The thing that inspired the initial idea for the story was the film The Young Victoria because there's this scene where Prince Albert pretends he likes the same things as her to try and make her like him, but she eventually uncovers what he's doing. I wanted to try and put that in a modern setting with characters who are considerably less forgiving of each other.

I've also never written a romance that isn't the classic “man meets woman, they fall in love after a few days, they live happily ever after” - the idea of writing something like this, where the two main characters are constantly trying to be one step ahead of the other, was exciting to me. I also really wanted to try my hand at writing British female royalty after reading the poem A Royal Princess by Christina Rossetti which offers a completely non-romanticized view of what being a princess would be like.

How long have you been working on this story?

Since around December 2013. I initially started by writing something huge which is going to happen around Chapter 10 and then worked backwards.

What is your favorite thing about writing To Wed a Princess?

The dynamics between the characters. I adore writing the exchanges between Eloise and Brian because I can show Eloise's arrogant, biting side but then when she's interacting with others I can show a softer side to the character. It's such fun writing characters interacting with each other when almost all of them have ulterior motives.

What is the most challenging thing about writing it?

The biggest challenge I've faced so far is writing characters who are royalty. Despite being British, I had to do a lot of research into the British Royal Family. I researched ways they spend their time, the different events they host or attend, where they stay and just how much power they actually have. On top of that, since the story is upper-class centric, I had to do a lot of reading on etiquette.

Have you ever experienced writer's block with this story? If so, how did you overcome it?

I tend to get writer's block frequently with this story, probably because a lot of it is new to me. The first chapter after the prologue was the most difficult because I had to introduce the characters, and whilst Eloise isn't a bad person, she's not the friendliest in first chapter due to the situation she's in, so I had to try and balance her. It was also my first attempt at writing royalty, which I struggled with.

In terms of overcoming it, I just force myself to write through it. I have a vague idea of what I need to happen in each chapter to carry on the story line and what I need to do to get the characters from one point to the next, so I just try to imagine what they'd logically do, according to their personalities, in the situation they're in and go from there. Making outfits for the characters on Polyvore seems to help, too.

Do you write with an outline, or just wing it?

I have a set of around four, really vague, bullet points for each chapter to give myself an idea of what's going to happen, just to keep the story moving forward. For the most part I just wing it, though – if I plan too much I get bored of the story.

Do you have any pre/post writing rituals?

I write best in the evenings or at night. Before I begin I usually find some songs that fit the chapter I'll be writing and listen to them whilst playing out the different scenes in my head and tweaking them. If I listen to music whilst I write, it can only be music with either no lyrics, or lyrics that aren't English. By the time I'm finished writing it's usually really late so I either go to bed or begin the homework that's due for college the next day that I always procrastinate on.

Is there anything you would like to say to your readers?

Writing is something that I want to do as a career, and sometimes I doubt my abilities, so the fact that you guys all continue to read, comment and subscribe is absolutely astounding to me. Sometimes I can't comprehend that there are actually real people out there reading my writing. It's utterly phenomenal to me and I truly adore and appreciate each and every one of you. Thank you so much!

Special thanks to Fandango and house of cards. for editing!