Munch made another, neater kill with his stake. "I know I bitched about this weapon, but now I like it. I wish it would catch on. What a committment a murder would be. No more misdemeanor homicides.You'd really have to want the bastard dead to go to this kind of trouble."

"That's what the prophecies say too. Except in Sanskrit."

"You're making that up!"

"No, I'm not. Ok, there's not really a word for bastard in ancient Sanskrit."

Dude, I can so hear Giles saying this, in that tone of voice.

Gawd. Reichard Belzer and ASH. Someone missed a casting coup.

Cool. You think? Yeah, the more time they spent together the easier it was...I just backed up and let them talk, like a secretary. Without a gun.(My people so rarely do that for me. Sigh.)

Conversation, I find, flows best if the writer isn't consciously trying to manipulate it. After all, it doesn't happen in a vaccuum. By the time you've got to conversation? The characters - fic or fiction - have certain well-defined personalities and attributes. And once you're hearing the way that particular character speaks, letting the convo flow is really just a matter of the writer trusting her/his own perceptions.

The action is the tricky part of a story. It' so easy to let things get over the top, and so many writers don't seem to be able to tell the difference between swashbuckle and slapstick, in the same way too many can't differentiate between archetype and stereotype.

But I love the stake-tossing.

I know. I'm dreading that frickin' fight scene...I don't mind telling you. And not just because the story will be close to over, although that too, but because physical things are so hard to write...I can't go by my experience, yeah? And I feel like I know my characters, but not as well as these guys.I feel like I know what they would buy in the grocery store, what book they've left open...probably Giles really flosses and Munch just lies to the dentist(No, that won't be a fic, I swear!)

Oh, I don't think the action has to be written as a detailed bloe by blow; really, it's just as likely to be brilliant as an advance-retreat.

And just think how much fun it will be to take down Coulter.

BALD Coulter.

I want a comment from someone in there, about not knowing demons went through seasonal moult, and does she shed her skin, too?

That's true, and you were right that just the fact these guys teamed up should do her some damage. People like that(or demons) sort of rely on the lefties to be too busy tearing each other up to go after them. And it happens, but not this time...

A solid wall of left-liberals, cops and demon-hunters, coming together - what a happy metaphor.

Well, not to get all Pinkola Estes here, but good storytelling is about healing, some. And sometimes getting your favorite people in rooms together, but that's ok, too? Right?

No disagreement from me, bebe.

I need to write my "Fouth Thing that Should have Happened in Sunnydale" and I know what it is, but it's insanely shmoopy.

I am looking forward to kicking her ass...she could use an ass-kicking.And she does come off like one of those women who spends way too much on shampoo because somebody told her she had pretty hair once.(I talk about hair a lot don't I? Not as much as Hec, but I do. Well, it was kind of the family business at one time...I guess I come by it honestly.)