Deadly Vision – Let’s Talk Setting
One thing I’ve noticed in a lot of books that “don’t work” for me, is that they aren’t steadfastly grounded in a realistic, well described setting. And this is a shame, because a great setting can really be an enhancement to any book, and if done well, can even become a “character” in the novel.
I don’t mean endless descriptions of architecture or itemizations of all the furniture in a room like a moving list, but a sense that the book takes place in a real setting, with consistency of the surroundings, and enough telling details in the description to really root the reader. With that, the buildings, their location, the weather, all become living breathing aspects of the book. It adds a much needed layer of verisimilitude to the story.
So, let’s explore setting for a while.
My novel, Deadly Vision, is a Medical Thriller, so naturally I needed to create a University Medical Center. Our hero lives in San Francisco, so my direction was clear. Any Medical Center can be described with it’s hospitals and laboratories, but I wanted something different. My inspiration was the UCSF Medical Center Campus, not because the buildings are amazing (in fact, I changed all the buildings to ones in my imagination) but because of where it is located. Like a sprawling monster, UCSF climbs up the hillside of Parnassus Avenue. I loved that particular location, because the hill, overlooking the City, became a character. It’s multileveled streets forcing the Center to be layered, one building on top of the next, up the hill from each other, each building fighting for it’s own prominence in some powerplay pecking order. The climb up the hill became a daily test for my hero’s battered 1969 MG Roadster, which seemed to highlight his growing struggles to get his research completed. Some buildings were tucked so deeply into the hillside that some may not even know of their existence.
Which was perfect for me.
This gave me many nooks and crannies of the hillside to explore. Power plays could be had by where someone’s building was located, how far up the hill, the ease of access, who blocked who. It was a power play of dominance and submission. Toss in some fierce weather changes and the Parnassus Hill became it’s own character.
Now, I didn’t want to actually use the UCSF campus as my model, or to describe actual buildings there, I just wanted the hillside, and the concept of this Medical Center sprawling up the hill. I envisioned it like a castle above it’s dependent village, there to protect and dominate the citizens below. Serving the citizens but so obviously detached from those beneath it. I wanted it to be a place of power, scientific magic, and cutthroat politics. To this effect, I purposely didn’t visit the campus when I was writing, but relied on memories and impressions left from a visit many decades ago. The hazy memory allowed me to easily fill in the spaces without being beholden to the actual layout or architecture.
Here’s how I described it, from the point of view of our hero.
“Rising from the top of Parnassus Hill, the San Francisco University Medical Center presided over the City like a monarch over its domain. The complex– a maze of concrete clinics, hospitals, and laboratories– wasn’t what Taylor would call an architectural marvel, but it didn’t need to be. The Medical Center’s reputation was based on excellence in medicine, not architecture. SFU was the recognized leader of the progressive West Coast philosophy of medicine, a leader in innovative medical science, a world-renowned institute for scientific discovery. It was a place where a man with a dream and enough energy could create anything.
Taylor parked his battered 1969 MGB roadster in Student Lot C and headed towards his lab, hidden in the basement of Anderson Hall, one of the many anonymous concrete structures on campus. He entered through the double glass doors, nodding to the guard at the entrance.”Now, Taylor’s (and Malcomb’s) actual lab in Anderson Hall is the main setting inside this building, but that reference, that visual, of the Medical Center presiding over it’s domain, repeats itself over and over, particularly as the politics inside the Medical Center turns very nasty. Many more details of the Medical Center complex emerge throughout the book, but this quick intro served to get Taylor into his lab to discuss emergent complications with his research partner, Malcomb.
Internal details of buildings and the hospital were easy for me to create, as I’ve spent 40 years of my life in such settings. Grab some things from here, steal some ideas from there, combine the best and the worst of what I know so well with fanciful details from my imagination, and I feel that the SFU Medical Center stands tall and true in my story. And serves as the burning cauldron of politics and backstabbing that all major Medical Centers actually are.
We’ll discuss other major settings used in Deadly Vision as we progress. Bottom line, write about what you know so you bring out the telling and poignant details to make a place real, and make that place real enough that it can become it’s own character in the writing.
At least that’s what I tried to do. You can tell me how well I pulled it off.