Sophie

My original intention was to write a novel for this story so I could write about Sophie's recovery but I realised that I would change writing styles in the middle and short stories have been more my forte than actual novels so I decided to make this into a novella. The actual healing is long and happened to Sophie in between chapters and not all at once. Please note that because this was a novella, and because of the writing style I decided to use for this, the entire process wasn't written down. This entire novella happened in the span of one and a half years.

I wrote this story because I was inspired by the show, Glee, and as well as the lovely wattpad author rainbowbrook. But the main reason I wrote this story was because of faith, was because of religion, was because of life.

I don't know if many of us understand how important life is. When I wrote Sophie I wanted people to see my view of life and why I feel like we have to live it, to endure the hardships and to cherish the precious moments. I believe in a greater good - God (Allah in my religion) - and I hoped to share at least an inkling of what it is like to have hope, to believe in a hereafter. I know that I might have not succeeded in that but the main goal of this anyway, was for you to see my views on life. It's exactly how Sophie Carmella thought it was in the end of the last chapter: a test for something better, for the hereafter.

"Death is inevitable. But this world isn't the end. There's heaven and hell, remember?"
- Andrew Smith.

Also, do I think like Sophie? The answer is: in most cases I do not. I've never quite had Sophie's thoughts. For one, I'm a strong believer of God and have never once despised Him. They say that when you write a story you leave a little of you in it and I agree. I left a little bit of me in this novella but not in Sophie Carmella. No. I left a little bit of me in Andrew Smith and Sophie's mum.

There is also the question of how Sophie's father passed away. I didn't put the reason in and wrote it in that specific way because I thought it would add to the vibe of the story and so I left that up for interpretation - though I did mention that he didn't die from a car accident, or a heart attack or some great fatality. My interpretation was that Sophie's father just passed away, in his sleep, because that actually does happen. I've read countless of stories where people die from many disasters and diseases but people die from not doing anything as well, from just being good. In my eyes everything has been written in our books by God and he writes in our books when it is time for our presence to grace this earth and when it is time for our presence to leave this earth. I am in no way questioning your beliefs or asking you to change them. I am simply stating what mine is and giving you more insight on why I wanted to share this story (which made it all the more difficult to post this story).

So this, ladies and gentlemen, is an inkling of what I think life is.

∞ T H A N K Y O U ∞

...to everyone who has ever read this novella, to everyone who will ever read this novella and to everyone who enjoyed reading this novella as much as I enjoyed writing it. Also, special shout-out to my girl qwertist and my love magnificentia for encouraging me to post this. You two are wonderful!

...to my love magnificentia who made this cute, minimalistic cover. It gives all the right Sophie feels, doesn't it?