Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House...

[quipxotic]

...and also on my fan fiction, which is currently stuck. Continue onward for writing whining and "The Haunting of Hill House" spoilers.



Where to begin? Okay how about this...I knew I'd have to figure out the relationships between the three Doctor Who characters (the Eighth Doctor, Liv, and Helen) and the Cranes (the family who move into Hill House in the 1980s in order to repair and flip it). That's not a big deal because the whole Crane family has a lot of screen time and anyone who watches the series comes out with a pretty good idea of who they are. Stick the Who lot in with Cranes and write down what happens - that's pretty straightforward.

But stupidly I forgot that I'd need to figure out the relationships between the Who folks and the damn house and the series is much more vague about its personality and powers. Hill House and the ghosts within it have some kind of power over time, that much is clear. The house can show people it's targeting the past or the future* in order to manipulate them into killing themselves. Is that future inevitable or is it just one of many possible futures, perhaps the one most likely to give the house what it wants? We don't know, but I lean toward the latter option because I don't believe in fate.

But this brings with it an even bigger problem. I placed this story at pretty much where the Eighth Doctor audios are right now, which means I don't know where Liv and Helen's stories will go. If showing people the future is part of Hill House's bag of tricks, what do I do with the two of them? The Eighth Doctor isn't an issue, I know his story, but he does provide a different problem.

Hugh Crane says that the house eats people ("Our family is an unfinished meal to that house..."). But what does it eat? Does it eat their lives? If so, then it wouldn't bother to try to trap the Doctor; after all, if he dies in the house he doesn't become a ghost, he regenerates. But if it eats both the household's and the ghosts' potential then it would be interested in him, because who has more potential futures than a Time Lord?

I don't know how to answer any of this or what to do to fix it. Let's say I decide I want to go with earlier companions, ones where I know what happens to them. The Eighth Doctor who travels with Charley or Lucie is a different Doctor than the one who travels with Liv and Helen. That means lots of rewrites, which I'd rather avoid if possible. If I'm going to do rewrites anyway, do I want to try the story with a different Doctor? That still doesn't help me figure out what the damn house eats!

Sigh. I know I should just pick something and go with it, but I do like to be right. And by that I mean, I like to write things that are in keeping with the tone and intent of the show(s) and I can't figure out what that is in this instance. So I'm stuck. Suggestions? Thoughts? Monsters?

*Hill House (and the ghosts) can also show people lies, but even those often have an element of the truth in them.

Comments

[sanguinity]

The usual answer here is to pick something with interesting potential, and then go with that. Does it work better for your purposes for the House to be disinterested in the Doctor, or to be particularly avid about the Doctor? Similarly, re choice of companions, is there a set of companions that you could do something particularly interesting with, re showing a distortion of their future? (Or for Charley, is there something you could do with her having met another killer house in canon?) Or if you decide to stay with Liv and Helen, what future could you spin for them that would be particularly interesting to play with? None of these questions have right answers -- not even the questions you pose about exactly what the House eats -- just answers that are more or less interesting to riff from.

[quipxotic]

I don't knooooooooooooooooooow! *sobs and, hand held dramatically against her forehead, slumps into the chaise lounge*

I've played it out all sorts of ways in my head. I've shifted it earlier in Liv and Helen's timeline, which could work and would require the least rewriting, but for some reason it doesn't interest me at the moment. Charley and Eight could certainly work (as you say, they have prior experience) and Charley is from a time closer to that of the ghosts so that opens some possibilities. Lucie would kick ass in this scenario and some days I lean towards trying that, but...I don't know. Nothing seems to stick.

I think figuring out what the house really does is the bigger issue. There's plenty of potential either way, which I suppose is part of the reason I'm having a hard time choosing.

[sanguinity]

Ah, you're waiting for the spark! The idea that says ME ME ME, and off you go! I don't know that I've got anything that can help with that, sadly. Sometimes I find that the spark comes during the writing itself -- that just picking a thing and going with it will generate the magic -- but all of this is so idiosyncratic to each of us that advice is more or less useless. I suppose I could say pick the story you more want to tell, but you'd have done that already if it was so obvious!

[quipxotic]

A spark would be nice, but I'd settle for some sense of forward motion. I don't know...I'll keep poking at it and see if I get some clarity at last.