Writer’s Blog #3 — Finishing the DCOU… Before the DCOU is Finished?!

Hey guys! Peyton here.

Welcome back to the third Writer’s Blog, special thanks to Hades for writing that… rant. Today, I’m discussing some crazy events that have happened because of the slate and how this site functions.

So… Batfold 5 is done.

I had explained earlier in the first Writer’s Blog that a lot of the DCOU is fairly separate from one another. The Suicide Squad stuff doesn’t interconnect as much with the Batman stuff, nor does Superman with, say, Green Lantern. For an Origami Universe, it’s interesting, as I genuinely feel like Fold 1 was so connected, and then it became DC’s Infinite Frontiers since then.

But, it’s also put me in a funny spot!

I believe that Shredder Squad 2, Origami Catwoman and the Kane Conspiracy, Batfold 5, and Final Creases ALL go hand-in-hand. Origami Catwoman leads into Batfold 5 which leads into Final Creases, and Shredder Squad 2 acts as a sort of gap between those stories, focusing a lot on JC Russel, who hasn’t had ANY love since Fold 1. So, when I finished all of Batfold 5 right before my birthday, frankly, I was kind of stunned. I didn’t know I could really do that.

But, Fold 4 can’t begin yet because I need Origami Catwoman AND Shredder Squad 2 to be complete so that it builds up tension, suspense, and flows from one story to the next, leading to the last Alan Wade Story. If I started posting what is done in the first half of fold 4 – Wonder Folder Odyssey and the Fold vs the Reverse Fold, we’d have a similar thing to… well, fold one and fold two of the DCOU, where there’s long gaps between these stories, and the DCOU Fridays boil down to rants like these.

Because of how much progress I am making overall with these things, too, it looks like I might even get Final Creases done before a lot of the DCOU’s stories are finished. While 90 chapters seems like a lot, they’re very snappy, short, and fast (all synonyms, but okay) chapters I can write. With seven parts, I’ve already finished part one, and part two having three chapters left to write, I’m actually ahead of my original plan to have the DCOU fully out by December 1st. If this is done, and these two stories (SS and OC) are written, we can begin posting them week by week, and maybe even finish by I think early November.

All of the stories I’ve seen have been amazing, and I love each and every one of them. There’s been some users behind the scenes feeling the stress of this; without proper compensation or a fanbase, this whole task grows daunting, and, really, we’re just trying to get this site done.

A part of this, besides the major reasons (Lack of interaction, lack of a fanbase, lack of enjoyment), I think also comes from trying to make these stories longer than they need to be. Guys, I can’t stress this enough, I would rather read and edit a 10k (or even 1k) story than read and edit a 100k story, as long as the quality of the narrative is good, and we are honest with one another.

This has been a collaborative project, and, as of March of 2022, there has been 1,249,808 words in total on the site. If each of our words was a person, then they could fill the city of San Jose, California, with a population of 1,036,242. It might be more now (given that we stopped doing this when Paper’mon was the most recent VGOU story out), but, as a collaborative storytelling website, we are — somehow — in the upper echelons of wordcount and amount of stories to tell. I will certainly let you guys know how many words we actually have once the site is finished.

In terms of how we’ll do this, regardless of WHAT we do or do not have, once the VGOU, WFOU, DCOU, and PJOU are finished, we’ll then begin posting the Origami universe stories. Once the last one (Shredder Squad vs the Council), we’ll end the site, complete with the last gifts from the council (such as omnibuses, and words of wisdom), and a one last hurrah.

We have this in the bag, everybody, and so far these last couple stories have been the best the site has ever seen. Let’s keep it up, everyone!

Peyton, out.

Let’s see if I’ll finish Final Creases before the DCOU…