Like most good stories, mine started as a random thought at 2 am. I think I wanted write something similar to all the victorian webcomics where either the maincharacter was isekai'd into a novel or was already a lady in the victorian era, along with the hallmark of an arranged/contract marriage...but I wanted it to be a little more fleshed out.
I wanted the main character to actually loathe the idea of marrying the duke, I feel like most webcomics just have the two main characters fall too easily in love, with very little internal conflicts. In my experience, an external conflict seems to usually take precedence over the plot, making the dynamic between the mc and love interest less interesting over time. Like, I started reading because I loved the slightly flirtatious, slightly witty, slightly hostile exchanges between the protagonist and male lead and now that they're in love, where did it go????
Another main point in my characterizations, specifically the male love interest, usually in these scenarios, you have these dukes that are just like automatically head over heels, totally just trustworthy from the start and the only problem is he is like maybe a little bit snarky. Like don't get me wrong I love it, but their personality, it's not totally fleshed out all that much. Their character just becomes nothing more than a love interest. So I figure, if the male interest is going to be as head over heels as they are, it doesn't make sense for it to have just been love at first sight. These feelings shouldn't be realized over night. I feel like they would of had to have been watching the mc from afar for a long time.
Now like most of the male leads I read about, a popular trait for them is to be possessive, which I think plays perfectly into the idea that they have been watching the mc from afar for a while. This makes more sense. But, I'm aware there's a very slippery slope of possessiveness. There can be varying levels of red flags that, in my experience, unfortunately get glossed over in these webcomics as well. It's a fine line but I thought I would take a crack at it. In my story, the duke arranges the marriage himself (I thought this was a funny concept)
So what I did was make the male lead in my story not merely snarky, but so obviously arrogant that not only does this cause the main character to loathe him, but also so that the readers do. I don't want the red flags in his character to be glossed over, I want them to be at the forefront and only after a long redemption arc will he truly be redeemed. So obviously, I had to be very careful to ensure about the way he came across. It's a fine line but I have confidence that he will be redeemed, just not too soon since it's a slow burn and also it just wouldn't make sense or feel satisfying.
My final part goes back to the concept of these contract marriages/ falling too easily in love. I think there needs to be a strong foundation of trust before anything other than just visual attraction in the relationship. I think since canonically the male interest is supposed to be good looking, I don't see the problem in acknowledging that she likes him visually, however subtly though since, ya know, she's supposed to dislike him.
I'm also building on an external plot for the main characters so in addition to internal conflicts, there will also be an external conflict whose relevance to the main character will come across naturally as opposed to being forced into the story.
Also I think there is some humor in it, mostly since the main character just does not like the duke, but he doesn't realize this since he's so arrogant, making a lot of their exchanges/interactions ironic
If you want a more specific synopsis of the story, that will be on my story's page, but I figured I would write this since it gives an reasoning for why I wrote it in the first place. Either way, thanks for the space to write this out! 
this was fun
