# Firstly, don’t be me. Well, at least don’t mess up like me.

I just spent 7 hours building something inside a single chapter that I haven’t seen done on Royal Road before: an interactive, styled search engine sequence.  
^((Now I’m not saying it hasn’t been done, I just haven’t seen it.))

It includes:  
• “Links”  
• A forum thread  
• A clinical “medical” article  
• And yes, a “hide sponsored results” button that actually works (Because one of you was going to click it and go “but—” **No.**)

**AND IT WORKS ON THE APP.**

**In short,** *I invented Google*.  
*^((Programmers, please let me have this.)**\*\*)*

**I’m sharing this for two reasons.**  
**^((3 if you count lack of info as one.)****\*\*\*\*)**

**First: What’s actually possible.**

Royal Road’s formatting tools are far more capable than most authors use them for. If you’re careful with HTML in the editor, you can build interactive elements, styled containers, expandable drop-downs, and full UI mockups that render cleanly inside a chapter. The dark background even works in your favor if you design for it.

For the right story, especially anything modern, cyberpunk, or tech-integrated, this opens narrative doors and delivery styles that straight prose simply can’t. In my case, the search engine sequence isn’t decoration. The format *is* the joke, and the joke *is full of* worldbuilding.

The reader isn’t being told a character is spiraling. They’re inside their phone, scrolling through search results about whether they are about to die while they are actively dying. Now using this all of the time, on every single chapter, probably wouldn't be that great, but I believe it's incredible when it's only occasional.

**Second, and more importantly: the warning.**

Royal Road currently has an experimental beta editor you can opt into. I learned the hard way that it isn’t just a “cool font add-on.”

As it turns out, it’s fundamentally different under the hood, with completely different formatting behavior than the standard editor.

Here’s what happens if you build something complex in the experimental editor and then switch back to the standard editor before posting:

**It breaks. Irreversibly.**

Not “slightly misaligned.” Not “one or two tags out of place.” I mean, the editor gets hungry and swallows it into oblivion. It does not care about you.

Switching back to the experimental editor does not restore it.

Whatever you built is gone.

You are rebuilding from scratch.

**So Rule 1: Do not do that. (Switching Editors mid chapter)**

Even then, in my experience, the original editor is nowhere near as powerful as the new experimental one.

That said… it *is* experimental.

Sometimes it doesn’t work in the editor, not because it doesn’t work… but because you didn’t hit save, kiss your monitor first, and do a backflip. The preview can just decide that you specifically are worth gaslighting today.

Readers don’t usually end up with that problem. Once it’s saved in a working state, it’s solid and behaves. But until you see it published and functioning exactly how you intended, do not assume it will remain the way it looked five seconds ago.

If you fixed something? **Save.**

If you’re about to leave the tab? **Save.**

If everything is going perfectly? Pause. **Look it over first. Then save.**

Once it works, do not touch it. Like, **ever.**  


**Which brings us to Rule 2: Make sure you’re stupid first.**

Ripping apart your masterpiece of perfect machinery just to discover it wasn’t turning on because you never plugged it into the wall is already a bad place to be.

Plugging it in and then realizing you damaged it while “fixing” it is worse.

Just save the draft and let it reload to make sure you aren’t fixing a sports car apart.

Certain actions will make it get confused and start inserting random <b>s or <p>s where they absolutely do not belong. But make no mistake, it’s absolutely trying to raise your blood pressure.

Speaking of which:  


**Rule 3: Clean your workshop before you ask a reader to sit in it.**

Being a reader and tripping over the screwdriver the owner left on the floor is not a fun experience. And if they see it, that probably means you didn’t sweep before unlocking the door.

Now, I believe that settles right into our final rule.  


**Rule 4: Don’t leave the toilet seat up.**

For whatever reason, the editor behaves more like a Canon EOS R6 Mark III than a text box. (Who names these things?)

It will snap a photo of your chapter exactly as it exists in that moment.

Leave an element in the open position? Congratulations. **You have immortalized it.**

And because Rules 2 and 3 are standing there like bouncers with brass knuckles, we really, *really* do not want to go back in to fix it.

I love it when formatting is used as part of the art, not just decoration. When it actually pulls you deeper into the story.

It’s rare.

Most of the time, we’re building the entire world in our own heads. So when a story reaches out and meets you halfway, when the format itself becomes part of the experience, it sticks. The format is the joke, and the joke builds the world. It’s memorable to me in ways that are difficult to explain.

The chapter where this lives is Chapter 9 of my serial, *A Sovereign’s Sincerity*, if you want to see what the finished version looks like and interact with it directly. Open and close each “search result” as many times as you like.

It’ll work every time.

**Probably.**

[TAKE ME TO THE "INTERNET"!](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/155338/a-sovereigns-sincerity-a-xianxia-horror-comedy)

[TAKE ME TO THE CODE!](https://pastebin.com/YZMHMbtD) 

[Guide] I lost four hours to the Royal Road editor, so you don’t have to. Here’s how I built an interactive search engine inside my Chapter 9 (full code included)