I Wear My Faith Like A Second Skin

In a previous writing workshop, I submitted and shared a couple of short stories that went hand in hand with each other. The class liked them enough to express interest in me turning my project into a novel, and my friend encouraged me after I was hesitant. Well, here it is.

*Genre*
YA Coming of Age

*Elevator Pitch*
When Sofie enters her junior year of high school in a new state, she learns just how far she's willing to go to be accepted.

*Premise*
After spending most of her childhood in a close-knit Muslim community in New York City, Sofie's family moves up to Concord, New Hampshire after her dad accepts a new job. New home, new school, new enemies. Now, Sofie must survive high school drama and come out of it staying true to herself.

I want the story to remain lighthearted, so I'm going to workshop the pitch to not be so dramatic and match better with the premise. I like the title too, but again, I don't really know if it fits. Comments are welcome!

tagging @4revgreen since you were interested in my wip!

I love the sound of this, and I really love the cover! What inspired you to come up with this story?

@4revgreen, Simple answer is I always wanted to read a story that featured a Muslim as a main or supporting character in western media as positive portrayals. The closest I got growing up was Sam in the Magnus Chase series, so I decided to create a story that reflected me as I experienced high school!

Any books by Zoulfa Katouh are really good.

I love the idea. There's definitely a lack of representation of Muslims in YA. I'll be excited to read it if you ever post here!

I am very excited to see your progress! This sounds lovely!

Age: 16

Goals: Get into an ivy league college

Appearance: olive skin; wavy, black hair, brown eyes; 5’8; slender frame

Personality: Introverted; kind; gentle; emotionally intelligent; organized; stubborn; people-pleaser; weak-willed

Habits/Mannerisms: A perfectionist; always carries a book or a small crochet project; observant

Internal Conflict: Keeping her values or changing them to fit in

External Conflict: Finding her place in a new school

Day One

To make this project more fun (and give me incentive to write) I decided to follow the Harry Potter word crawl. My house is Ravenclaw, and I'm a Muggleborn.

I received my Hogwarts letter: 103 words

I visited Gringotts bank: 263 words

I got my wand at Ollivander's: 401 words

Total Words: 767. Total Time: 30.5