58 and a Half Hours/Author's Comments 1
I fully admit it. This is a ridiculously self-indulgent, ill-advised vanity project. I started writing it down because it consumes so much of my thought at work during the day that I couldn't forgive myself if I didn't write it down. I started posting it because any constructive criticism would be helpful, because sometimes other people's input may inspire a part I really like, and finally, the least likely outcome, there's a part of me that hopes it resonates with someone, particularly once I get to the end. I started posting it here in particular, because it was the only place I can think of that it wouldn't deleted and my account banned immediately, since the majority of the characters are under 18, with the largest number being 16. Besides the fact that at least two characters would have to be dramatically aged up, I don't think that I could make the story flow by aging everyone past 18 and posting it elsewhere. Frankly, the school in this story is weird for a high school; it'd be downright bizarre for a college.
I may as well point out, this isn't really an erotic story; it's really more of a long form story that happens to contain sex. I'll write a love scene when I'm inspired to, or fade out when I'm not. There's no hard and fast rules for which scenes get which treatment; my main focus is ultimately on how the scene feels, emotionally. If it seems to me like I've been able to establish the right feeling, either before or after the scene, then it's more likely I'll fade out. If the mood is changing during the scene - say, when Natsu first joins the harem, as her thoughts go from 'this is so wrong' to 'this feels so right', then I'm more likely to be inspired to write it out. And there's nothing stopping me from coming back and adding parts later if the inspiration hits me - that's why I added the 'date updated' column to the main page.
Finally, while most characters in this story go, 'psh, 16 is close enough to adult that I'm not particularly bothered by it', there are two characters who, when they find out they are attracted to someone significantly younger than them, don't initially take it very well. I tried to write them as if they're real people who are discovering something about themselves that they don't like and will have to come to terms with. So when they wonder to themselves, 'Am I a monster?' for their attraction, what I'm doing is trying to portray what someone who was previously unaware of those feelings would be thinking before they've started coming to terms with it. I am not saying 'everyone who feels this way is bad'.