Need something more original than the standard underground base.

AnyaKimlin

AnyaKimlin

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After the longest period of writers block and the world's weirdest year of my life, I'm back to writing loads. At present I'm working on an urban fantasy set in a seaside resort in the North West of England. It's a YA and my protagonist is 14.

I need a base. Black's Nest has one under the lake of a Stately Home and I've just realised I'm about to write one that is almost identical in this new story. I need something other than the standard secret base.

I did try at the Pleasure Beach but it was more like something Perry the Platypus would show up in. Another thought would be a normal shop selling rock and ice-cream but is that a bit Torchwood?

All suggestions welcome. Or as it's another urban fantasy can I just have another base?
 
The best place to hide is under your enemy's noses. Is the antagonist active in the area? Do they have an agent in the are? Could the protag work for and underneath (undermine) this agent?
 
goldhawk said:
The best place to hide is under your enemy's noses. Is the antagonist active in the area? Do they have an agent in the are? Could the protag work for and underneath (undermine) this agent?
Click to expand...

No idea - not met the antagonist in full glorious form yet ;) At present all I know is the main antagonist is the man who assaulted my protagonists gran and kept a selkie wife who has escaped. Oh and I know he had my protagonists guardian knee-capped in the 1940s (it's set in the 80s). I need to get a character x-rayed. I don't want to use a hospital. It's time to bring the base in and I'm not sure what form to give it that will make it different to the one in my other book.
 
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If it's gotta be at Blackpool then how about the defunct Cabin Lift up at the North End.
Surely this could be secretly working and go down and down instead of stopping at the beach level by the go-kart track (that used to be a boating pool and lido)

disused-lift-known-as-the-cabin-lift-on-the-seafront-in-blackpool-FXTYY4.jpg


Same place from above at promenade level..

DSCF2302.jpg
 
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I like that. West Bay in my story is not quite Blackpool but there's enough of Blackpool in there (it's a town I made up which is an amalgamation of Southport, Morecombe and Blackpool -- Southport is the one I know well enough to write but I don't want to have to search for the sea) - ooh now you have given me an idea: I think the observatory in Hesketh Park was closed to the public at the time my story is set... off to find out.
 
AnyaKimlin said:
No idea - not met the antagonist in full glorious form yet ;) At present all I know is the main antagonist is the man who assaulted my protagonists gran and kept a selkie wife who has escaped. Oh and I know he had my protagonists guardian knee-capped in the 1940s (it's set in the 80s). I need to get a character x-rayed. I don't want to use a hospital. It's time to bring the base in and I'm not sure what form to give it that will make it different to the one in my other book.
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In the 80s, the only other place (aside from a hospital) to get an X-ray is a nuclear facility. Not a nuclear reactor but a place that makes isotopes for medicine. Or one that does research in nuclear medicine. Perhaps the Selkie wife has got employment in one.

Even if the antag is not in full form, you have to know about his agents, especially the ones making life difficult for your protag.

Never forget that readers like to make connections. Give them hints but never reveal connections until you have to. :)
 
Have your secret base 150,000 years in the past. No one would think to look for it there!

Then you have loads of inter-dimensional portals i.e. ordinary looking doors and things that connect the base in the past with current times. So they are disguised to look like normal doors.

Say, old doors...office store room doors.....front doors of dark houses.... and one of these garage doors....

Door1.jpg
Door2.jpg
Door3.jpg
Door4.jpg


And the base can be out in the open and can be anything you want :D

And if someone says, well, where are the remains of the base now, then? You can say that the last ice age obliterated it totally, so that there is no trace of it.

Also you could perhaps have strange Neanderthal looking people appearing in your story as well as extinct fauna (those really big scary bears - the short-faced bear I believe)
 
goldhawk said:
In the 80s, the only other place (aside from a hospital) to get an X-ray is a nuclear facility. Not a nuclear reactor but a place that makes isotopes for medicine. Or one that does research in nuclear medicine. Perhaps the Selkie wife has got employment in one.
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It's why I want a base so I can put a hospital in it ;) I have a doctor.

Even if the antag is not in full form, you have to know about his agents, especially the ones making life difficult for your protag.

Never forget that readers like to make connections. Give them hints but never reveal connections until you have to. :)
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Umm.. not really. I know one smells of fish. At present all I really know is what they have done but have very little idea of who did it. Could be any of the characters I am writing.
 
If you're going to have multiple people coming and going (doctor, agent, etc), you should place the entrance somewhere that gets plenty of everyday traffic; if you use an abandoned building or someplace remote, it would be glaringly obvious to anyone staking things out.

Think something like the tailor shop in Kingsman, or the store they used as a front in the first Captain America movie. Maybe a department store - nice and busy and easy to lose a tail in - with a secret floor?
 
The problem with secret bases is that they are often beneath obvious objects that stand out from their surroundings.

If it's in Blackpool (or any other ubiquitous seaside town) stick it beneath an everyday B&B. You could even have paying guests staying there unaware of what's below.
 
Juliana said:
If you're going to have multiple people coming and going (doctor, agent, etc), you should place the entrance somewhere that gets plenty of everyday traffic; if you use an abandoned building or someplace remote, it would be glaringly obvious to anyone staking things out.

Think something like the tailor shop in Kingsman, or the store they used as a front in the first Captain America movie. Maybe a department store - nice and busy and easy to lose a tail in - with a secret floor?
Click to expand...

The secret 13th floor? Many buildings in America do not have a 13th floor. They just skip it when numbering the floors. So it would be a surprise, at least not in the US.
 
@ Juliana - I was going to say need plenty of people coming and going....:)

@Luiglin - on holiday in Scotland a few years back there was a formerly secret nuclear war bunker opened to the public. The buildings up top were ordinary, a bit reminiscent of Victorian public toilets - and absolutely nothing like the local buildings. Stand out much? (Though the wire fence around the place didn't make it inconspicuous.)

I like B&B - it would be different.
 
If it's going to be at the seaside, I'd take advantage of that--maybe a cave only accessible at low tide or one that can be accessed by having your character walk straight into the ocean...
Or if the tone isn't that fantastic, just beneath a uniquely seaside establishment is good--like a saltwater taffy shop or something. Good luck!
 
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