Thanks a lot. It's always humbling to get feedback from others with writing experience. The beginning does start weak. I will mostly blame my lack of confidence and experience for the slow start. However, I will also blame the genre to some degree. When I started this in October 2017, the majority of adult games were grinding. The initial builds of this game had points associated with the relationship and I honestly hated it. The more I got into the writing, I started to feel the characters and I, personally, became less interested in quantifying the relationship. The real world doesn't operate like that so I moved away from it. I'm a terrible coder, and some fairly critical early feedback I got suggested that I "play to my strengths" and they cited the writing. I was surprised that people thought I could write so I ended up taking my filter off and embraced the power of anonymous writing. That's around chapter 5 or so.
Based on that feedback, I always encourage people new to this to not start a patreon and run polls on what the audience thinks the characters should do. As the writer, go with your heart--youre the one that will reap the consequences--not the audience. I think the style slowly improved when I stopped doing what the genre typically did and went in my own direction.
I'll also credit that shortly after finishing Chapter 6 (I won't spoil but a certain park scene), I ended up bringing on a co-writer with amazing talent and a very different perspective on things. Since then, we've become inseparable friends in this journey and that helps a lot. When you have someone that you trust, but also respect, that knows your wishes and tries to help you accomplish them without trying to take over. It's an amazing dynamic. In short, the two guys that are still helping me with this have helped me build my confidence over the years and have given me amazing experiences to emotionally tap into for the writing.
Next segment should be dropping on patreon in a few days or so.
