The hi and why

Silver · 07 Sep 2018, 9:35 pm

Hi, I'm Megan - or Silver if you prefer- and though I've read through the site terms etc, I'm not entirely sure if my intentions here would be a breach of those terms. I am writing a fictional story which takes place almost exclusively within a series of abandoned buildings. I am here to ask questions related to the experience of the buildings, the sights, sounds, smells. At some point my research will require me to establish a small number of real-world abandoned sites in the Brisbane area and where they would be in relation to each other, but I don't have to do that here.
I realise that I am coming to the table without an offering, and will understand if that means there is not a place for me here, but I do hope we can have a chat.

Happy travels.

Marschick · 08 Sep 2018, 1:06 am

Check out YouTube

also, insta, or Google should lead you to sites in your area

Silver · 08 Sep 2018, 9:20 pm

Thanks for the advice, Marschick. I have been doing those things, though my concern here is not with specific locations. What I'm hoping to do is find people who are willing to talk to me about their experiences, their emotional and physical responses to different types of (abandoned) structures.
Though I'd love to go out and soak up these experiences first hand, my condition won't allow it. Thus, my hope to speak to others.
If anyone out there would be interested in having a conversation along the lines of what I've explained, please contact me. I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks for hearing me out

Panic! · 10 Sep 2018, 9:06 pm

I write for a hobby under a pseudonym (got a few books published in he USA) so I can understand this. I would suggest though using fictional buildings based on descriptions from real ones. What questions did you have?

Silver · 11 Sep 2018, 12:37 pm

Thank you for your reply, Panic. It's always nice to meet a fellow writer. Most of what I am looking for are examples of sensory experience and emotional response to various types of abandoned buildings. For example, the sense of smell, which YouTube just doesn't help me with.
I imagine a large commercial building might have different smells and air quality to that of an abandoned house. How do they differ? When a home is abandoned filled with the belongings of the previous inhabitants, how does all of that material effect the smells and air quality?
What sort of emotional response do different types of abandoned buildings evoke?
For people who have revisited a site over time, what kind of building was it and what sort of changes did you notice (sight, smell, decay, etc) over what sort of time?
Other aspects which interest me are the level of animal/insect/nature incursion over time and in various types of abandonment; how often one might expect to encounter other people; a rough idea of how common abandonments are and the kinds of materials which might be abandoned along with a building.

Any of this would be of great help to me.

Again, thanks for taking the time to reply.

_cedz · 13 Sep 2018, 11:09 am

If you are located near Brisbane I’d be happy to meet up in person sometime and answer any questions you have. Abandoned houses typically smell similar to old nursing homes, the air is usually pretty musty and “dead”. Warehouses have a really distinctive smell similar to underground carparks, a decaying wet concrete odour.

Its honestly nowhere near as common to run into other people as you’d think, but it does happen. I’ve personally only run into squatters who seemed to be living at abandonments due to mental health/drug issues. Lots of needles and little ziplock bags. I’ve spoken to some of the rough sleepers in the valley area a few times and I’m sure they’d be happy to answer any questions you may have, some of them are a bit hostile but most of the ones I’ve spoken to are nice intelligent people who ended up in that situation due to shitty life circumstances.

I know one of them in particular on a first name basis who is quite articulate, he certainly uses a bit of artistic license in his stories but in this case it might be a good thing? He’s told me he suffered abuse as a child and as a result ended up with a dependency on the 3 “biggest” hard drugs which led to him prioritising his money on drug use rather than accomodation.

I have noticed that rough sleepers are more common in places that were “dodgy” before they were abandoned - strip clubs and pubs etc.

The main emotional responses I get from abandonments are awe and fear; awe in the case of something thats been abandoned for years with minimal vandalism, fear when I’m having to step around needles half filled with blood.

Insects and animals aren’t THAT common, probably similar to parks in my experience, you might need to exagerate that aspect to make it a little more interesting.

Hope this helps! I wrote this pretty quickly so I’m sure I’ve missed a tonne of stuff but feel free to send me a PM!

Silver · 13 Sep 2018, 11:32 am

Thank you for your informative reply, _cedz

All very useful and greatly appreciated. I will put together a few more questions and send them through by PM.
Thanks again for your time.