How To Write Your World As A Character

Today we’re going to talk about a book that was written for young teens; the fog by Caroline Cooney. It’s an older book, I think I first read it when I was about 13, but there’s a reason I’m focusing on it, and it’s not nostalgia.

It’s because even today with all the books I read, I haven’t found many that can create this kind of world.

The Fog is the first book of a trilogy about a young island girl forced to board on the mainland for school with a sadistic principal and his wife.

This is children's horror so there’s no gore or anything like that. Instead, there’s a plot to drive children insane just for the fun of it. I mentioned it’s part of a trilogy, but I don't’ feel the other two books lived up to the standards for this one.

Anyway, the reason I want to talk about his book isn't’ because of its plot, characters, or way of building fear without gore. It’s because of the way everything is described and woven throughout the story.

The main character lives on an island. (something I can relate to) Because of this, her perspective is uniquely island. It permeates every page.

What do I mean about that?

She talks about the location in human terms because it is more than a part of her life, it’s part of her very identity.

And as such, she thinks of it as a character of it’s own. Below are some lines from the actual book.

✅ The ocean might call, float in me, but the earth made no such promise. Break your bones on me. Said the earth.

✅ White froth like beckoning fingers strangled little fish

✅ The only true calendar is the tide; it speaks to you, it ordains time.

✅ It’s eating the paint off our houses, it drowned our ancestors.

✅ She loved the fog, it hugged her and kept her secrets.

She even talks about humans in relation to other people. ‘Her eyes darting around like minnows.’

When you talk about the sea in such vivid anthropomorphic terms, you turn the setting itself into another character.

The idea of a secret-keeping fog, an unforgiving tide and a cruel sea with an agenda of its own all combine to make this book much scarier than the threat of some demented humans.

In fact, the way the story is written, the sea is practically a co-conspirator, even though there is no magic or fantasy in this book.

So if you want to be completely enveloped in a world and see how the setting permeates every page and thought. Read the Fog by Caroline Cooney.