How to Develop a Scary Atmosphere for a Horror Story

Horror writers can take their scary stories to the next level by creating the right atmosphere. It can make the difference between an “okay” story and a “wow” story.

But what is atmosphere, in a horror writing context? And how do you go about creating it?

Grab your headlamp and lace up your mud boots. We’re about to explore some techniques for developing scary atmosphere in fiction.

Understanding Atmosphere in Fiction

Atmosphere is not the same as setting. That’s the first thing aspiring horror writers should know. It includes the setting, but it goes beyond that as well.

Definition: In fiction, the “atmosphere” refers to the overall mood or tone a story delivers. Writers can establish atmosphere with sensory details, setting, and character emotions.

Here’s the key difference between these important story components:

• Setting is the location and time period of a story (e.g., a remote house located on the Yorkshire Moors on a stormy night).
• Atmosphere is the overall emotional mood and tone of a story (e.g., mystery or creeping dread).

Atmosphere can do a lot for scary stories. It increases the reader’s suspense and keeps them turning pages. It can make a story more immersive, engaging, and memorable.

How to Create a Spooky Atmosphere in Horror

Fiction writing is a creative process. It pushes boundaries and challenges norms. It doesn’t like rules or containers. So some of the tips presented below might not apply to your story.

Still, it helps to understand the basic techniques for creating atmosphere in horror fiction. It’s like adding new tools to your toolbox, for those times when you need them.

So, here are five ways to create a scary atmosphere in a horror story:

1. Setting: Create and describe a creepy backdrop.

To reiterate, the setting is the location and timeframe of the story.

Here are some examples of setting from the horror and suspense genres:

• The Shining (novel): The isolated and snowbound Overlook Hotel in the 1970s.
• The Haunting of Hill House (novel): An imposing, decaying mansion in 1959.
• “The Lottery” (short story): A rural New England village, exact year unknown.
• Alien (film): The claustrophobic, dimly lit spaceship Nostromo in the year 2122.
• The Blair Witch Project (film): The eerie Black Hills Forest of Maryland in 1994.
• Psycho (film): An isolated hotel in a fictional California town in the 1950s.

In a horror short story or novel, setting is arguably the most effective tool for creating a foreboding atmosphere. It can also help you develop broader themes and ideas.

Here are some tips for choosing and describing a story setting.

Example: In The Shining, the rugged remoteness of the Overlook Hotel in winter creates a sense of isolation and helplessness that mirrors what Danny and Wendy feel.

2. Sensory: Provide details to engage the reader’s senses.

In a fiction writing context, “sensory details” are descriptions that appeal to our five senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. They can make a story more realistic for readers.

The key is to describe the important details while ignoring the rest. If you spend too much time on description, you might bring the story to a grinding halt.

Let’s assume I’m writing a haunted house type of story. Here are some sensory details that would probably improve my story, and some that wouldn’t.

Details worth mentioning:

• Doors creaking open or shut on their own
• The ever-present smell of decaying wood, mold, or mildew
• A faint knocking sound from inside the walls or basement
• Signs of neglect (peeling wallpaper, water stains, cobwebs)

Details that are probably not worth mentioning:

• A random bird chirping or distant car sounds outside the house
• Generic descriptions of unremarkable walls, floors, or ceilings
• Normal household smells that don’t create a sense of unease
• An exhaustive list of every item in the house

Be selective. Provide occasional, purposeful details to build atmosphere and create realism. But do it in a way that doesn’t burden the reader or weigh the story down.

3. Emotion: Show us your character’s inner fears.

Showing how your character’s react to a scary situation can also build atmosphere.

In a well-written story, readers become deeply immersed and engaged, as if they’re inside the story with the characters. So when a character shows fear or dread, it can affect the reader’s emotions as well.

In psychology, this concept is referred to as emotional contagion. It can happen in real life and also through fiction.

Imagine you’re in the produce section of a grocery store, stuffing lemons into a bag. You notice two people glance toward the back of the store (behind you) with terrified expressions: wide eyes, open mouths, a hand to the chest. They drop what they’re holding and back away in horror.

Without even turning around—without even seeing the source of their fear—you would almost certainly feel some of that fear.

You have witnessed someone else’s fear, and it has affected you.

The same thing can happen in fiction, albeit to a lesser degree.

As a writer of horror and scary stories, you can create a scarier atmosphere by showing how a certain thing or situation affects the characters.

4. Subtlety: Know that you don’t have to explain or show everything.

Novice fiction writers often feel like they have to describe every little detail in a story so that the reader can see it in their mind’s eye.

But in many cases, the exact opposite works better.

Mystery, withholding, hinting, subtlety, ambiguity. These tools can help you create an unnerving or scary tone for your story, by engaging the reader’s imagination.

Let’s say I’m writing a story where two characters are hiking in the woods and begin to fear that something is stalking them. It shadows their movements but lurks in the shadows.

Finally, it crosses the trail just ahead of the couple, revealing its true form.

As a writer, I have two options for describing this creature:

1. I could pause the action to describe every little detail of its appearance.
2. I could offer only a few chilling details, seen through the characters’ eyes.  

These approaches differ in several important ways:

• The first version slows the story down and prevents the reader from using their imagination to paint a picture in their mind. It draws the picture for them.
• The second version maintains the story’s pace while allowing readers to render the creature in their own mind.

If I’m going for more of a shock value with the creature’s reveal, I would probably want to offer a more detailed description rather than a brief glimpse.

But if I’m trying to maintain a suspenseful atmosphere and tone in this scene, I would choose the second method. I would sketch in a few details and let the reader fill in the rest.

Because what the reader imagines might be scarier than anything I could describe.

5. Uncanny: Reveal elements that are familiar but somehow “off.”

The uncanny is a psychological concept popularized by Sigmund Freud. It refers to something that is simultaneously familiar and strange.

In both fiction and real life, the uncanny can create a sense of unease or dread for those who experience it—the feeling that something is slightly off.

In horror, writers can use uncanny elements to tap into these primal fears of the unknown. This technique makes ordinary things feel wrong or threatening.

Here are some examples that could be used to create atmosphere in a story:

• Uncanny object: A porcelain doll in a child’s room is described with eyes that follow the protagonist. At first, it seems like a trick of the light. But when the protagonist relocates the doll to a different shelf, it’s back in its original position the next morning.
• Uncanny behavior: A mother acts lovingly toward her child but doesn’t blink or maintain normal breathing patterns. When the child asks a question, the mother answers logically but with a voice that is subtly wrong—slightly too deep or monotone.
• Uncanny space or setting: The protagonist enters their childhood bedroom, which has been untouched for years, only to find subtle, impossible changes. The furniture is too large. Their posters have unfamiliar images they’ve never seen before.

Uncanny elements work best when they are subtle and psychological. This creates unanswered questions in the reader’s mind, requiring them to fill in the gaps with their own interpretation. The end result is a pervasive sense of dread that lingers after the story ends.

Practical Exercise: Close Your Eyes and Imagine

Let’s end this lesson with a practical exercise.

I’m going to establish the setting and situation for a scary story, and you’re going to conjure an atmosphere in your mind, through visualization and imagination.

Remember, atmosphere is the feeling you get from being in a certain place or situation. It includes the five senses, or at least several of them. It also includes the emotions, thoughts, and tension that arise from the setting’s details.

The setting: A decrepit but functional lighthouse on a stormy coast. It’s night. There are no other structures or people around for two miles. You’re not expecting anyone until morning.

I haven’t given you much, so the rest is up to you. Here’s what to do next:

• Close your eyes and hold that simple image in your mind.
• Let the image come to life, with movement and sound.
• What sounds do you hear? What smells?
• What does the ocean air feel like on your skin?
• What do you see when you look out over the crashing surf?
• And why were there footsteps down below, when you’re all alone?

Before you can write an atmosphere into your story, you must be able to envision it. You have to place yourself in that time and place, through your mind’s eye.

Only then can you describe it in a way that engages the reader’s imagination.