"There's just some great things that are going to be coming up, both on Buffy and on Angel. So, everyone don't worry that the engine's running out of steam. We got a lot of hot air left in us."

That's just the kind of comment you'd expect from a writer and co-producer on the WB's Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The wildly successful Mutant Enemy production is currently soldiering on in its fourth season, and its spin-off, Angel, began airing this fall, also on the WB. Both series utilize a unique blend of classic horror camp, genuine teen angst, and a healthy dose of humor. It's like television's version of the Colonel's secret recipe... but Espenson's willing to let us in on some secrets. Whip out the index cards and jot down the ingredients; this is how a masterpiece makes its way from the writer's head to your television set.

"It can take a couple different shapes," she says, of the writing process. "Sometimes you pitch story ideas to Joss [Whedon, executive producer on Buffy and Angel's co-exec], but usually he will either have an idea or it'll be clear from what's happened in the story so far, the sort of things that should happen in this episode. A concept comes in from somewhere, and then the entire staff spends anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks discussing the concept, and trying to figure out a story. Eventually, we get enough of an idea of the shape of the story that we start breaking it down into acts and then into scenes. And when it's broken down into scenes, we write it all on a big chalkboard in the office, and we discuss exactly who's in every scene, where it takes place, and what happens in that scene. And when that has all been decided for the whole episode, the writer is sent out to write an outline, which usually takes about a day. You write an approximately 14-page outline."

You'd think fourteen pages would be quite enough to go on your merry script-writing way, but no; there's even more process involved.

"Joss reads that, gives you notes on that, and then you go out and you turn it into a 50-page script, which is your first draft. You turn that in to Joss, he gives you a set of notes on that, you go out and you write a second draft. Usually at that point, it's close enough that Joss just takes over. He takes the script away and he does his own rewrite on it. And at that point it's ready to be filmed."

Sound time consuming? It is, but probably not as much as you'd think.

"At the beginning of the year, when there's a luxury of time, that process could take a month. But by now, it takes about a week, from beginning to end, almost. Well, a little more than that," Espenson admits. "I just turned one in recently, I would say from beginning to end it was like two weeks, total. From coming up with the idea, what would happen in the episode, to Joss finishing his rewrite of it. About two weeks. That's 'cause we are so far behind by now, if it took a day longer than that, it simply wouldn't get filmed."

The writers also draw heavily on their own experiences growing up, just to figure out new horrors to subject poor Buffy to.

"We sit around and discuss, 'What would be a cool monster?' Or more frequently, we sit around and discuss what happened to us in college and what feel like really core college experiences. So, 'Living Conditions', the second Buffy of the season, was very much out of [the fact that] we have to do a bad roommate story. It just wouldn't feel like it was a show about college unless you did the roommate from hell who's actually from Hell. That sort of felt like you were cheating the experience if you didn't do it."

Of course, Espenson can't give away too many details on upcoming storylines. As everyone knows, Whedon forces all of his writers to participate in a secret ritual of silence which involves lots of chanting and the blood of a she-goat. But even a scary blood oath can't stop some of us from a little self-promotion.

"I'll have two more Buffys this season than what you've already seen," she reveals. "One of them is [a] big Giles [Anthony Stewart Head] ep, which will be episode 12 of Buffy, and then either episode 17 or 18 of Buffy will be mine, but we have no idea what's gonna happen in that one. I mean, not even an idea of what will have happened. Joss knows what's going to happen for the rest of the season, and what will happen next year on Buffy, but not broken down specifically in term of this episode or that episode. So we really don't know."

Don't know. Sure. A likely story. What kind of spells can you do with the blood of a she-goat these days, anyway?

"But yes, I'll have two more Buffys, and I've been doing a little helping out on Angel here and there, sort of rewriting scenes, but without screen credit 'cause it's just doing a little tweaking here and there. So every now and then you'll see a joke on Angel that I will have written. But you won't know it's mine." She pauses, then adds, "But if you're laughing, that would probably be mine."