Well, that's true 😂 But honestly, even reading “The game is still being worked on!” from the devs is a huge relief for people interested in it. Silence is like, our worst nightmare since so many indie games get dropped out of nowhere because the devs went mia 😅 I would say writing SOMETHING every 3 months would make people feel reassured that the game is still being worked on (at least it would make me reassured). And we can wait a really long time once we know that a game's not abandoned 😂 But if you want to have updates that are a little more interesting, you could write things like: “Started writing chapter 5 of character A's route”, “The first half of chapter 5 of character A's route is done”, “The second half of chapter 5 of character A's route is close to being done”. Or something else if you don't really have routes. If you're still working on things besides writing you could mention them as well without having to actually show them. But seriously, even the most boring and repetitive updates are better than no updates at all 😅
As far as releasing the game in chapters is concerned in my opinion it depends on what you find most comfortable as creators, but some people might be very interested in the idea 😊 You could also choose to release the game by routes if they're not connected (aside from the common route of course).
Anyway, good luck with everything! 😊