It's done. 

It's done and we're getting very, very little feedback for it.  God, we realize it sucks, people, but tell us to our faces.  Okay, that was snarky.  I didn't mean it.  Christ, I've got the market cornered on bitchiness today, don't I?  Sorry. 

(One thing I always swore to myself: Write only what I want to. I lost that mission with
this DOOUL and I'm paying for it in the form of wanting validation from others. When I write something I love, that flows easily from me, other people's comments are merely
icing on the cake. As you can see from below, this ep of DOOUL did NOT flow. It was forced. Maybe that showed.)

I'm just exhausted... and disappointed.  I can't count how many times we stopped and started DOOUL over the last six months.  We were gonna take them to the movies, the museum, the playground (I had sick ideas about sex on those bouncy horses on springs that Donna quickly vetoed); we were gonna parody "Restless," complete with Wes-driving-a-Winnebago-do- 
you-want-to-come-in-the-back-with-us subtext (or rather text); we tried a hundred and one things a hundred and seven different ways.  Finally, when I was with Donna in late August, we hit the lists and begged for suggestions, and the ones we received were excellent.  Funny.  Full of potential.  We picked the best and started work.  And still, it took us over a month to complete it.  We promised end of August, we promised Angel premiere week, then Buffy premiere week, and finally started telling people to bite us if they couldn't wait.  With Criss's help, and a lot of sugar-based products, we finally ground something out.  But it's feeling more and more formulaic with every passing chapter- bitch, bitch, hair joke, sex in a public place.

For a variety of reasons, DOOUL just isn't working the way it used to.  Part of that is due to other concerns- real life, the launching of Ficbitch.com, and the writing of our own fic.  (I wanted to rip out throats when people responded to my hundred-and-fifty-page Spikefic with "Great!  Now you'll have time to write more DOOUL!"  Christ, there's no rest for the fucking weary, is there?)  And there's the aforementioned plot structure, a formula that can only work so many times.  I mean, we're running out of places for them to fornicate.  (My friend Mark wants us to write them fucking while skydiving, and it ain't gonna happen.) 

(I also swore to myself that I wouldn't bitch about GETTING feedback. Even if it's "more damnit!" Cause there are plenty of awesome writers out there who get little to none at all, simply because they're not "well known names". And that sucks. Then Jess and I got caught up in the death-threat-to-write-more cycle, and I broke yet ANOTHER promise to myself. Sigh.)

But a lot of the problem is due simply to changes in canon.  DOOUL is AU, and that universe seems to get more alternate with every passing week.  We started having problems writing last year when we realized that the Spike and Angel of DOOUL are not the kind of guys to steal Buffy's underwear or lock a bunch of lawyers in a wine cellar.  In the DOOULverse, there is no chip, no Wolfram & Hart, no Buffyobsession, no Buffybot, and certainly no DeadBuffy, no Key, no siring complications, no Dark!Angel, no William the Bloody Awful Poet, and barely any mention of the BatPack.  DOOULverse is a happy place; Jossverse is not, and perhaps that's why the readers enjoy the temporary escape from the world where girls claw themselves out of coffins and cute soft-drink-sipping demons get slashed to bits.  Angel's gotten (a little) lighter in the last few weeks, and Spike's gotten (a little) less pathetic, but they no longer bear much resemblance to the Spike and Angel of the DOOULverse.  I'm currently working on a fic where they get into a fistfight at Buffy's funeral.  That's canon behavior. 

And then there's S/A, a complicated 'ship that doesn't translate too easily into uncomplicated comedy (although it can certainly be done- I recommend Collie's "Four-Eyes and the Leprechaun on Steriods," Sam's "Tuck Me in at Bedtime," Tink's "Broken," and Ducks' "Harry's AAA" - all can be found at StA).  Sometime last year, someone commented that DOOUL was funny and all, but wasn't it time we took their relationship to a deeper level?  Problem is, you can't take Angel and Spike to a deeper level without bloodletting and deep physical/psychological scarring.  When I wanted to take Angel and Spike's relationship to a deeper level, I wrote To Take You In.  (That fic has one comic line in it.  One.)  Canon Spike and Angel, deep-relationship Spike and Angel, Slayer-of-Slayers and Scourge-of-Europe Spike and Angel, do not traipse around grocery stores and mosh pits and zoos, and you know it.  Besides, S/A, nummy as it is, just isn't the popular- or, for that Fool for Love-fucked matter, plausible- 'ship that it was in the days of Spike and Angelus hanging out at the factory.  Try to justify S/A to someone who just started watching the shows, and all you'll get is a blank stare. 

So... DOOUL.  We used to think we'd keep it going forever and ever, but that's looking less and less likely, and I'm having a hard time feeling sad about it anymore.  So enjoy the sex and violence while you can, guys.  'Cause it might not last.

(And to the 90 people who joined the update list: Then again, it just might. We are humbled and grateful at such a huge response, particularly now. But the overall point is re. the future of DOOUL: at the moment, we just don't know where of *if* its headed. And btw, no amount of death threats are gonna make this series easier to write.)