Creator's Favorite Episode: According to the story’s Tumblr, “The Seastone Cage” and “The Gauntlets In The Sand” are Drillmaster’s favorite individual chapters in A Gem in the Rough.
Outdated by Canon: The story presents Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine's real names as Damien and Petrea respectively, before the Vivre Card Databook revealed their canon names to be Gem and Mikita. Subverted in the final update of the story, in which the canon names are revealed via wanted posters. After asking why their names are different, the characters all decide to just use the names devised for the story.
Damian’s love of puns started out as this before it grew into a character trait.
Nearly every song written into the story was picked at random by the author based on a whim of what could work thematically and could be reworked lyrically while planning the individual chapters. The only exceptions to this for the story as a whole (so far) were “We Are The Crystal Gems,” "I Am The Very Model Of A Cunning Tiger Millionaire,"“Miss Valentine,”"Jolly Holiday," and the 4kids rap.
The friendship between Peridot and Robin, surprisingly enough. What started out as a simple conversation between former opponents became the driving force of Peridot’s character development throughout her initial experiences on the Grand Line.
The debt between Nami and the Baroque Works Trio was introduced purely because it was commented that the amount they sold the Golden Crown for was far too low. Thankfully, this was perfectly in-character for all four of them and allows for an interesting side plot to play out over the remainder of the story.
Word of God: The Author Commentary and Tumblr often give ideas of what the characters would think about certain situations and character interactions that has not come up yet. This ranges from minor trivia (like which Disney movies would the characters enjoy the most) to material that has been intended but hasn’t been overtly stated in the story (like Petrea being canonically bisexual).
Write What You Know: The author has admitted that, while he is not a fan of writing romances in his stories, that the relationship between Rose and Greg as well as Nami’s advice to Steven for his date with Connie are based on his own relationship experience with his wife. Coincidentally, Greg gave very similar advice in “Steven’s Dream” on the same subject, which aired after “The Three Syllables” was written.
