#princess machine

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So. Do you guys remember Princess Machine? Or the cyborg wip, as I used to call it?

I've been lowkey planning to keep writing it on Tapas, in a serial format, because that's what it's best suited for (I think). Like I've struggled to squeeze it into a standalone, into a duology, and it just didn't work out. But now I'm like. I can post this online for sure for sure. For however long it needs to be. Like I have an ending in mind so it won't meander too far (I hope) and become unbearable, but the format will allow me a lot of room to cover everything I want to cover without worrying about word count.

But now I'm wondering like. Should I even keep writing it, in this political climate?

For those who are unaware or forgot, Princess Machine/cyborg wip is basically The Bachelor set in a cyberpunk-ish world. Or "The Selection" series but good (hopefully). It's about a bisexual cyborg janitor named Kit Sullivan who gets picked as a contestant to star in a reality TV series about marrying the country's prince. (It's a semi-constitutional monarchy, so he has/will have considerable power.)

The premise is a bit silly but the goal was always to execute it sincerely, which led to me thinking of the genuine toll it would take on a socially anxious commoner to be thrust into the national spotlight and made to perform and become a Brand. On top of her actually falling in love with the prince, despite it all, while knowing she can't/won't/doesn't want to win the competition and become a princess/queen.

Aaaaaand therein lies the problem. Like.

Is this too silly and outlandish a premise? The part where I both try to interrogate the rags-to-riches trope and the "billionaire CEO" type romances, while also making this a ... billionaire CEO rags-to-riches type romance? Esp with a PRINCE, like?

In this political climate? Am I being silly goofy? Should I just shelf this for another ten years????

I know it's all in the execution (and ending, which I won't spoil) but getting to the execution in the first place presumes I can get my foot in the door with the initial premise. Which feels. Unlikely? Am I just overreacting?

I feel like I was already teetering on the edge of believability when I made the prince likeable and mostly well-adjusted despite his circumstances, and at this point I'm wondering if it's even possible to make the reader root for Kit to get with him when we all know all billionaires must die.

[time-to-write-and-suffer]

Decided to do a lil fun thang as a warmup/guilty pleasure and drew all my currently active WIP heroines with nothing but lines and the symmetry ruler in Clip Studio. Both for funzies and to check if I can actually draw them any different. Is there something wrong with YOU that makes you recognize all of them? 👀 Or is the sameface too strong?

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I lost like 500-1000 words of writing to my own accidental Scrivener fuckup. Now I'll have to rewrite all that shit again.

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To the 1.3 people who still remember Princess Machine ... what if I just made Rhett like ... the child of some extremely wealthy people and politicians. And he himself is also like a famous movie star or something.

The part I've always struggled with is justifying the silliness of the premise and addressing how actually bad it would be if it happened IRL. And the political consequences of it all.

So if I just ... deleted them? I could still very much do the thing where the economic disparity is highlighted, but I would remove a lot of Kit's angst and suffering, which would shorten the story back to just one book instead of a duology, and also lighten the tone to fit more with her comedic narration, and it would let me give them a much happier ending since Rhett is not a prince anymore. I can still make him an heir to incredible wealth so that angle still works, as well.

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Themb ❤

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Hh sowwy for cringeposting but I love themb

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Would anyone be interested in beta reading the Princess Machine chapters before they go up on Wattbad? It's an informal thing, just read a max of two chapters per month, check for typos and general character/plot consistency, nothing major that requires a bunch of effort. You'd have to read the previous/published chapters and be somewhat into the story itself. And yes, I'd be willing to do something similar in return, provided there's a roughly similar word count per month (~10k).

[time-to-write-and-suffer]

What if I just fuckin ... finished Princess Machine. What if I just did that for a laff, huh? What if I did that, motherfucker (me)?

What if I finished it out of spite for myself? What then, bastard brain?