Trivia / The Steff Pearce Series

• Awesome, Dear Boy: Or adorable, in this case. The author really wanted to make this series to give Ash a girlfriend, having been inspired by the casual LGBT representation in cartoons like The Loud House and The Owl House.
• Self-Remake: “I’ve Gotta Be Me” (and the series as a whole) is a remake of the author’s very first Sing fanfic that paired Ash with a male porcupine named Jason, one that he felt suffered from the main character having unfocused motivations and the story being told only from his perspective (as well as being heteronormative).
• What Could Have Been: Several for “I’ve Gotta Be Me”:
  • Steff was first designed as a bespectacled porcupine with three quills on either side of her head. Ultimately the author made her a skunk so she would stand out among the other characters and her original design was incorporated into her ma Andrea, making her and Cassie an interspecies couple.
  • Ash originally would have performed "Hanging On The Telephone" in the junior year talent show before “Crazy Train” was chosen instead. The former was later used in “Our First Gig”.
  • The author thought of having Steff first try to ask Ash out on Valentine’s Day of all days before discovering her and Lance were together, but determined that would have just been cruel.
  • Becky was briefly considered being written as Steff’s ex-girlfriend before she met Ash. The idea was scrapped for being too much of a coincidence.
  • In the very early drafts of the story, Steff’s song in the final show was planned to be “She” by Jen Foster as a way of confessing her feelings to Ash. As the author figured out her character arc, their love confession instead happened before the very end and “I’ve Gotta Be Me” was chosen as the more fitting song for her.
• Write What You Know: Steff becoming sick with tonsillitis in “The Worst Disease A Singer Can Catch” is based on the author’s own experiences catching it for the first time.