Being a photographer for a touring band had always been your dream. So when you got the offer to get out of your home state for the first time in your life to tour with the band iDKHOW, you definitely don't refuse. The only thing that worries you is...
Bill and Charlie were not originally planned to be brothers until i told one of my (two) friends about it, and they immidetly went "Like the Weaslys?" so I just HAD to use that one. Their last name, Bellete, is French for Weasel, the mean nickname the Weaslys get called by Draco Malfoy
Jay, Charlie, Lucas and Bill are inspired by the technichians (and in Lucas's case the tour manager) who I saw working for idkhow in Berlin. There were two guys setting up the stage, one in a plain blue shirt, looking so unnoticeable that he would have been invisiable if I hadn't paid attention, who inspired Charlie, and one with a beard, black rimmed glasses and a base ball cap who inspired Bill. Jay was lookwise based on this roadie who helped carry the cases with equipement to the touring van, but I gave him dread locks instead of an afro like the guy had. And Lucas is plainly based on the looks of the tour manager
In Köln, when I was waiting for my second iDKHOW show, long after I had finished writing, and after the first few chapters were up, I saw a guy who played in a band in a venue next doors, and he looked exactly what I had always Luis imagined to look like. Seriously, if I had to cast people for the characters, I'd cast this dude as Luis.
I wanted the reader not to be the only woman on tour, so I added Lisa for the merch; the guy who I had seen at the idkhow show got cancled (I'm sorry, dude, even though I don't know you), but he was super kind and just had some sort of peace about him which I packed into the "fatherly" side of Lucas which we get to see when he talks to the reader after her panic attack
I knew pretty early on that I wanted to include the incident with the stolen equipment from last year, and when the idea with the drugs popped into my head, it made sense to have the bus stolen in order to hide the drugs
Originally, before I created the characters in detail, I wanted the drugs to be smuggled by the lead singer of the opening band, which would have been Jay, but once I was finished with his profile I was like "no, he's to innocent", and decided to have it be the most unexpected character (apart from Ryan and Dallon), which was Lisa
Originally I had the reader's appearance based on a mix of my other friend (who got me into iDKHOW in the first place) and myself, before I changed it to be a little more general. The idea was the reader to have a side cut, like myself, and long, brown, curly hair like my friend.
Also based on my friend's appearance was the idea that somewhere in between the reader tells Ryan they always wanted pink hair, so he drags her to the hairdresser where they get her hair dyed pink.
Since the story is set in August/ September 2019, Ryan's hair should be brown. Actually I wrote him brown haired until I asked my friend (the one with the pink hair) and they answered:
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If Ryan's hair would have been brown, and I would have included the hairdresser scene, he'd have gotten his hair dyed blue again, because "damn, I miss the blue".
I did not include the hairdresser scene, because the only time it would have found some space, was during the time the bus got stolen, and it just seemed weird to have the the characters go "Hey, our bus and all the equipment got stolen, but let's go dye our hair. Who wants to join?"
