Black Magic White Lies, chapter 1

[moscow_watcher]

Title: Black Magic White Lies
Author:moscow_watcher
Chapter 1 - In which Xander discovers a secret
Timeline: BtVS, alternate season 5
Genre: drama, mystery, action
Characters, pairing: general, Xander/Faith
Rating: R (for intense situations).
Summary: Xander thinks he has a little secret. He doesn't know that his little secret is a part of a big fat conspiracy

Comments

[nothorse]

"Not what you think"? The only suspect I can think of is the random guy in "Five by Five".

Hmmm. Nice start.

[moscow_watcher]

Nice start

Thank you!

The only suspect I can think of

*evil cackle*

[nothorse]

You know you'll have to write fast now. ;)

[moscow_watcher]

I take it as a big compliment. :)

The good news is that the rough draft is finished. I couldn't start posting before I finish because I was constantly rewriting bits in the earlier chapters to cork up numerous plot holes in the later chapters. Now the storytelling part is over, hopefully - although one of my betas recently baffled me with a question "How does she know that he..." - etc. Now I'm mostly torturing my betas with character voices and general style. I hope to post a chapter a week.

[nothorse]

I take it as a big compliment.

That's what it was, yes.

Hope the writing works out. (I never have the patience for the whole outline-beta-writing-beta-editing process. Which is why I stick with drabbles.)

[moscow_watcher]

*iz envious*

To me, drabble is the hardest type of fic. I don't have enough self-discipline to squeeze a story into 100 words.

[nothorse]

I love them. They are more like poetry than fiction given the formal strictures, but they make for good discipline enhancers.

I can't manage to actually plot out a longer story. Whenever I try, the writing dies as soon as I have figured out the plot...

[moscow_watcher]

They are more like poetry than fiction

I suck at poetry as much as I suck at drabbling... :(

Whenever I try, the writing dies as soon as I have figured out the plot...

It usually happens to me when I diverge from canon too far. As soon as I try to plot something original, with new characters and new situations, my interest dies immediately. So I hang around the canon, exploiting various "what-ifs".

[nothorse]

Well, I think I suck at most drabbles too. There's about a handful of the dozens I've written I think are actually decent.

The dying of the writing for me is more a case of "I know what happens, why should I write it now". It's really hard to get beyond that.

[moscow_watcher]

There's about a handful of the dozens I've written I think are actually decent.

Could you post the links? I'd love to read them.

"I know what happens, why should I write it now"

Maybe to make the characters surprise you?
Seriously. Sometimes they do something you don't expect of them. :)

[nothorse]

Everything I've written is on my journal. Except for a few on the anon kink_fic comment thread, and when I get around to it I'll probably repost them on my lj.

As I use my lj mainly for fic posting, there's not a lot else to slog through.

Maybe to make the characters surprise you?

I'll have to try. I'll have to have something beyond the few scribbles I have now on wednesday for summer_of_giles.

[moscow_watcher]

Thanks - I'm going to read them.