![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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.
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.
