How to Describe an Abandoned House In Your Writing?

The abandoned house is a timeless storytelling device. It can be a crumbling Victorian mansion or a long-forgotten cabin in the woods, but this setting holds a magnetic pull, one that whispers secrets, provokes fear, and invites discovery.

To use an abandoned house effectively in your novel, you need to do more than describe peeling paint and creaking floorboards. You must live in it through your characters' senses, emotions, and decisions.

1. Activate the Five Senses

A good setting engages the reader as if they’re stepping into the space themselves. With abandoned houses, it’s all about sensory overload and decay.

Sight

Start with the visuals, but go beyond cobwebs and broken windows. Describe how the light filters through cracked shutters, how old furniture sits blanketed in dust, how graffiti mars the walls, or how nature has begun reclaiming the space.

Sound

Abandoned places are rarely silent. The groan of shifting floorboards, the rustle of rats in the walls, or the echo of footsteps in an empty hallway can provoke unease.

Smell

Smell is an underrated but powerful tool. Mildew, mold, rotting wood, stagnant water, or even the lingering scent of something once pleasant, like old perfume, can paint a strong picture.

Touch

Include the tactile experience: the gritty dust on furniture, the cold metal doorknob, the splintering wood, or the sudden sticky cobweb across a character's face.

Taste

This one is tricky but can be effective. Maybe the air is so thick with mold it leaves a metallic or fungal taste. Or your character accidentally breathes through their mouth and instantly regrets it.

2. Explore Character Emotions in the Space

An abandoned house is never just a building. It’s an emotional landscape, a mirror for your character’s internal world. Consider what the house represents and how the character feels as they move through it.

Fear

Fear is the most common reaction: fear of the unknown, of something lurking, or of confronting a past event. Even a brave character might feel unease.

"He told himself the creak was just the wind, but his pulse refused to listen."

Nostalgia

If the house belonged to the character (or someone they knew), emotions could veer toward melancholy, longing, or guilt.

"She ran her fingers along the doorframe where her height had once been marked in pencil. The smudge of her childhood still clung there, like a ghost refusing to leave."

Curiosity

A detective, explorer, or rebellious teen might find excitement in the mystery.

"The deeper he ventured, the more the house seemed to whisper to him, promising secrets behind every door."

Grief or Guilt

If something tragic happened here, the emotional weight could be oppressive, shaping your character’s thoughts and actions. It can be a good place to give your character's grief some depth.

"Each room was a tombstone, each object a reminder of what had been lost or left behind."

3. Create Character Interactions with the House

Characters shouldn’t just walk through the house, they should interact with it. Let them open doors, touch surfaces, climb stairs, move objects. These interactions deepen immersion and reveal personality.

• Does your character recoil from touching anything?
• Do they open every drawer, searching?
• Do they sit in a dusty chair, claiming the space?
• Do they run from a sudden sound or lean into it?

Each action shows how they relate to fear, memory, or control.

Also consider how the house interacts with them. Does it resist them with locked doors or collapsing beams? Does it welcome them in eerie ways, like lights flickering on mysteriously?

4. Use the House to Generate Conflict

An abandoned house is fertile ground for story conflict: physical, emotional, and supernatural. Here are a few examples of tension that can arise:

1. Physical Danger

• The floor collapses beneath a character.
• Wild animals or squatters have taken residence.
• The house catches fire or floods during exploration.

2. Psychological Stress

• Characters begin hallucinating.
• One character wants to leave; another insists on staying.
• Isolation breeds paranoia.

3. Supernatural Threat

• The house is haunted or cursed.
• Time loops or dimensional shifts occur inside.
• A character becomes “possessed” or trapped.

4. Interpersonal Conflict

• Characters argue over whether to reveal secrets the house uncovers.
• Old resentments flare up in this emotionally charged space.
• A mystery from the past—perhaps even involving one of the characters—comes to light.

5. Use the House as a Metaphor

Great settings aren’t just background, they reflect or echo the themes of your story. The abandoned house can symbolize:

• A broken family (the house falling apart like relationships).
• Unresolved trauma (ghosts representing literal or figurative hauntings).
• The past (a physical remnant your character must confront).
• Change (decay as a symbol of inevitable transformation).

Don’t spell this out explicitly. Let the house suggest meaning through details, structure, and what your characters choose to do with it: rebuild it, burn it down, or leave it behind.