"Whooo-oooh-ooooooh!" intones Marti, conjuring up a ghostly image of the future Buffy scribe as a haunted teen. "I was very preoccupied with all things grim," she says. "Now the funny thing is, that's how I remember it. But then I run into people who I went to high school with who are like, 'You weren't like that at all! You were totally goofy and you were always, you know, singing and laughing!'" She laughs, taking on a slightly self-mocking tone. "And I'm like, 'No, I was very dark and deep. I had a theme song, and it wasn't 'Get Happy.' It was...whooo-oooh-ooooooh!"

Marti's haunted childhood has served her well. After graduating from film school at UC Santa Cruz and working as a writer's assistant, she joined the ghoulish Buffy staff in season 2 and currently serves as co-executive producer and Slayer mastermind Joss Whedon's second-in-command. Recently, she also found time to do a rewrite on a big monster movie and sell a romantic comedy idea, both for Universal.

And this week, she's making her directorial debut with the Buffy episode "Into the Woods" (Tuesday, 8 pm on The WB), which focuses on the increasingly troubled relationship between the Buffster (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and downtrodden boyfriend Riley (Marc Blucas). "It's just about their relationship. It's going to take them in a new direction," she says. "We get bits of the other characters, there's other stuff going on, but it's a pretty Buffy/Riley heavy ep. It's going to address some of the stuff you've seen [Riley] sneak around and do. We're going to look at some of that more closely."

If Joss is the behind-the-scenes Buffy, then Marti is all Willow enthusiasm and zingy Spike wit -- with a touch of good ol' Xander self-deprecation. For example, when I mention fellow Buffy scribe David Fury, she goes into mock-jealous mode. "You know, he has his own fan club," she says conspiratorially. "And, like, his own Web site."

Uh...so do you, Marti! "I do not!" she laughs. "Or they haven't really gotten around to it, so he's a much bigger deal than me."

Nah -- much as we love The Fury (who, by the way, says that Marti is "the best writer on the show, save for Joss"), we have a special place in our hearts for Buffy's resident chains 'n' pain gal. As we continue to chat via phone, she reveals all about about directing, haunted houses, and naturally, being a "sneaky, evil leader."

IGN Sci-Fi: So you were kind of spooky as a kid, eh?

Marti: Yeah -- I just filled out a questionnaire for a writing program I was part of, and they asked, "What are the things that have contributed to you having a good career?" It was the practical things, like having good luck and hard work and perseverance...and a really grim childhood. A turbulent and spooky childhood.

The first house I remember [living in], my mother told me was haunted. The woman who died there left a trunk in the attic that my mom found, that was full of all her letters, and her dresses and pictures. My mother was a visual artist, and she created this collage of a floating dress of the ghost who lived in our house. That was the kind of world that I was already living in by the time I was like 5, you know? Looking for the ghost in our house and totally freaked out about it. The world was already explained to me as a place where very spooky things were going on.

IGN Sci-Fi: And on Buffy, you sort of go for the dark romantic stuff. Like, they call you the "chains 'n' pain" gal.

Marti: Well, that's sort of what Joss has dubbed me. We have a lot of other great writers who do a lot of pain and sex themselves. But certainly, when an episode comes out that looks like it's going include a whole lot of melodrama or a whole lot of sex, I'm usually the one going, "Ah? Mmm hmmm..."

Joss read a lot of my sample work before I got hired on the show, and I didn't realize it, but almost every one had like, suicide, as a theme. He called me "the suicide gal" when I first came to work here, because all my stuff was so dark and so serious, and that kind of put me on my path here. Bein' that gal!

IGN Sci-Fi: Which sort of culminated with the Dracula episode ["Buffy vs. Dracula"], which was so goth...

Marti: Right. And has all that Dracula sexuality. You kinda want him to bite ya! To me, the Dracula myth is so much about longing for eternal love, not just love that lasts for a month or so. Not Hollywood love! But eternal love, eternal life. But to me, it's all about sex anyway! I do gravitate towards the episodes that are a little...naughtier. Whereas some of the other writers [have] backgrounds that are more in comedy, and they tend to go more that way. I think we've all learned to stretch and grow a little bit in other directions. I hope that I'm a little funnier than I used to be.

IGN Sci-Fi: Well, you are Joss' second-in-command. Are you guys like Kirk and Spock?

Marti: [Laughing] When David Greenwalt was around, we were the Evil Triumvirate. The three of us were thick as thieves and always getting into trouble, and now it's pretty much just Joss and me, 'cause David is working on Angel. But we have a really good writing staff, and they are all really involved and a real big part of the process all the way through. There isn't a whole lot of me and Joss ducking off by ourselves, but it does happen.

He also gives me a lot of responsibility in his stead. If he doesn't want to do some stuff, then usually, it falls to me. And that's my pleasure, it's a really good gig. When he can't go to the set, I will, or if he doesn't want to take a pass at the show editing, than I will, and so on. It's the best education in the world, and I'm getting paid. He's really, really, really brilliant. There aren't many people as smart as he is or as talented as he is in...the world. So, to be able to learn from one of them has been amazing.

IGN Sci-Fi: Speaking of more responsibility, what was the whole directing thing like?

Marti: The fun part of it is that you are able to really take full responsibility for the end product in a way that you can't when you just write it. And that means when something goes wrong and you mess up, you don't get to point the finger at somebody else. But when something goes right, you really get the image in your head that you had when you were writing it. And that's a really amazing feeling, to be able to have a picture in your head and then see it come to fruition. It's kind of like when you go to the movies and you're like, "Man, I can't believe they're doing that, you should do it this way!" When you're directing...they do! [Laughs] You know?

And I'm such an armchair critic, I'll sit at movies or at home watching television, and go, "Oh...uh...ah...why doesn't she, you know, turn that direction...that's ridiculous!" My husband is like, "Finally! She gets the chance to boss people around and have some effect." And it wasn't really even an experience of bossing people around. I mean, maybe for some people it's all about establishing control, but for me it was a process of knowing what I wanted and trying to find a way to help everybody realize that. And then sometimes it was a process of not knowing what I wanted and asking for help. So it was much more collaborative then I thought it was going to be. I had a lot of fear that it was going be all about trying to be a big, fat, mean leader, and that's not really my style. I'm much more of a sneaky leader.

IGN Sci-Fi: Going into the second half of the season of Buffy, can we expect lots of big revelations and blowing things up?

Marti: Oh, my goodness! Well, this year, the final episode is our 100th episode, so Joss came in early with a notion of where we were going, and it's pretty huge. Because it's the 100th episode, he's aiming for a really huge climax. So everything's going to spin wildly out of control any minute. It's gonna be cool. It's pretty major -- that's all I can say!

IGN Sci-Fi: And will we be seeing any new characters?

Marti: Yes! We are going to have a new character coming in. And I can't say anything about that person, but we are going to be introducing someone really unusual fairly soon.

IGN Sci-Fi: You know, Buffy's sort of unique in that the writers are as adored as the actors. What's that like, having such a following?

Marti: It's cool! Fortunately, it isn't really like what it's like for the stars. I've been with Sarah [Michelle Gellar] out in public, and that's scary. She can't live her life in a normal way. Writers get to fly underneath the radar, and I've heard a certain writer that I'm very fond of say that it's best that way. The minute a writer becomes famous, they kind of lose the experience of being human in a normal way, and that's what we're supposed to be talking about. I mean, I like press as much as anyone else, and I like getting attention, cause I'm a big needy person, but at the same time, I'm glad I have the experience of being human on a daily basis.

But the fact that we do get recognition for the fact that we contribute to the show is really amazing, 'cause I think most writers feel that people think that the actors make it up. You know, "They're so clever!" Wait! We're clever! We make them seem clever! The fact that there's an awareness that there are people behind the scenes who actually contribute is really neat. And we have such a great fanbase. They're so into it, and they so appreciate it, and it makes coming to work really fun.

IGN Sci-Fi: So do you ever do the posting board thing?

Marti: I used to, but then, I have to be honest, I logged on one day, and the first thing I saw was, "Marti Noxon sucks!" And I knew that it was one person, some place in America, but I couldn't get it out of my head. I was like, "I'm gonna call that guy! I'm gonna tell him, he doesn't understand! My episodes, you know, they're all about feelings! And he needs to look at that!!" People were going, "Marti, it's one guy."

But if I get on the board, and people are sort of "eh" about an episode, then I really take it to heart. And if they're psyched about it, I'm psyched, but my emotional life shouldn't rise and fall with the interweb, you know? [Laughs] Although I do confess to ego-surfing every once in a while. You know, typing my name in and seeing what comes up. [Laughs] Mostly, it's scripts on eBay.

IGN Sci-Fi: So you can bid on a Marti Noxon original...

Marti: Exactly. You can get some horrible first draft or something. Really hate me! Jump on the web and tell everybody.

IGN Sci-Fi: Last question: what does the Marti Noxon action figure come with?

Marti: [Laughing] OK, a six-pack of Tab, the Jeff Bynam action figure [her husband] -- we're a set. Our two little dogs, our wondermutts. Twix candy bars...cause I eat so well! A "Joss Whedon is a God" baby T-shirt. And a little tiny bottle of Prozac.