A Royal's Tale [COMPLETED]

Behind The Scenes

Hey Noodle!

I don't know about you (But I'm feeling 22) but I love watching behind-the-scenes videos, learning how everything came together, or just watching actors all laughing during takes.

I can't get you a video because my characters are fictional, but I figured I could give a written behind the scenes.

And since it was kinda the heart of the story, we'll start with...

The Ship Switch!

I've never actually switched ships halfway through but I knew that's what I wanted to do.

1. Because it would be a challenge.

2. Because it would be something completely different than most stories.

3. Because I'm evil!

4. Because I wanted to write something realistic.

I'll explain that last one. So many times I would read fantasy stories where a lot of things are fantastical but still believable that I would have problems with the story aspect and not the world-building aspect. One aspect was the royal and the commoner.

Yes, it's cute and heartwarming in theory but if you really look at it that relationship would have a lot of strain on it later on. After all, a commoner isn't going to have all the knowledge that any other royal would growing up. They would be at a constant disadvantage as well a place of ignorance on a lot of issues.

It's why I had Gigi and Thayer do things the way they did. They experienced firsthand how hard it was for Gigi to rise up to be Queen when her whole life she'd spent outside the realm of normal society and Court life.

Another factor I thought of was sometimes no matter how much you want something or love someone, it doesn't mean you get it or them.

I'm a weird mix of realist and optimist. This means I always have hope for better but I'm fully aware it's unlikely to happen in every scenario. Again that's why I wanted to switch the ships because realistically Lydia would need someone like Zavier to save her kingdom.

Also, I wanted to explore this idea of selfless love.

Yes, a lot of characters are willing to sacrifice themselves to save a kingdom, a group of people, or even one person.

But are they willing to sacrifice their love for that kingdom, group of people, one person?

I wanted to see an instance where even though it would feel like one of the hardest decisions that was what these characters would do.

So that's what I did, I made every character give up their love in order to save a kingdom. Being royal isn't about getting what you want, it's about doing what's best for your people.

How did it work?

Not going to lie, I was going to make the switch ten times more torturous for you. I had planned to have one scene right before they all took off for the West Isles to take on King Titus, where Lydia comes into Wilder's room and begs him to run away with her.

Wilder being Wilder would of course talk her down and tell her that if she'd wanted to run away, she would haven't come to him in her dressing gown and robe. Knowing this, Lydia would cry and curl into Wilder's arms telling him that she wanted him to be her King.

Really heartbreaking stuff.