The Little Book that I Took Sixteen Years to Write

The Little Book that I Took Sixteen Years to Write
Friday, July 18, 2025 by TERRIE HELLARD-BROWN

Categories: Friday's Fiction / GUEST AUTHORS / Reviews and Interviews

PLEASE WELCOME

TERRIE HELLARD-BROWN

FICTION FRIDAY

The writing journey is full of twists and turns and ups and downs—it’s a roller coaster ride, and hopefully, it’s one we enjoy that doesn’t make us nauseated very often.

I’ve enjoyed the ride so far, but one of my recent books took me on some surprising twists and turns. I originally started my writing adventure with devotionals and poetry. Then, I moved on to creating lesson plans, monologues for church, and any other materials we needed for church or schoolwork overseas. It was a great training ground.

One Christmas, I had an idea to write a story for my oldest daughter. I wrote the story, and I asked her to draw some pictures for me. I described them, but told her she couldn’t ask any questions about what they were for. She did a great job, and for Christmas, I handed her the story of a dragon named Drandar, complete with her illustrations.

My daughter loves dragons, and she has autism, so the dragon in the story had similar challenges. I wanted to encourage my daughter and spur her on in her life pursuits. She was sixteen then. For the time being, Drandar remained Rachelle’s story I wrote for her.

We moved back to the United States from the mission field at the end of 2015, and I saw an ad for a writers’ conference in California. We went as kind of an impulsive act of faith. I had always wanted to be a writer since I was in second grade, but I had never taken it seriously as a career.

That first year, I found out I had too many interests and ideas. I needed to niche down a lot. I learned that we take this writing journey for many reasons, only one of which is traditional publishing. I left feeling a huge need for wisdom and discernment.

The next year, I wasn’t much closer to an answer regarding what God wanted me to do, but at the end of the same conference the following year, I suddenly felt I had an answer to my prayer. I knew, with all my heart, that God was calling me to write children’s books. After that weekend, I began diligently learning what that meant.

Like most writers who have never written children’s fiction, I thought it would be easy. After all, the stories are short and fun and for kids. And like most children’s writers, I quickly learned I was so very wrong.

I describe children’s writing as every word fighting to be on the page.

No word gets to just be there.

I studied, read, edited, and even started a podcast interviewing children’s authors. I learned a lot! I wrote a bunch of children’s stories, most of which will never be published because they are so terrible. However, I did write a few with potential. One of those was a rewrite of Drandar. I rewrote it over twenty times and had a 500-word version, a 1000-word version, and several new stories about him. I thought maybe it would become a picture book series.

I sent it to my critique group. They loved it. I had friends read it with positive results. So, I finally sent it to a professional for critique. Their response? “This needs to be a chapter book.”

What! I have studied picture books and rewritten this story what seemed like a million times. And now, you’re telling me it needs to be a whole different genre? I don’t know the rules for writing chapter books. Ugh!

I did another rewrite and sent it to another professional for critique. They said the same thing. “This should be a chapter book.”

There was only one thing to do: learn how to write chapter books.

I just happened to interview someone on my podcast who had written a book about how to do that. I bought her book.

It took some time, but finally, I had a chapter book written and began the critiquing process again, and then the editing process with a professional editor. Eventually, we were ready to print this book. And it only took sixteen years to get here.

The sixteen-year-old daughter whom I wrote the book for became the illustrator of Drandar the Dragon Knight. While I was honing my writing skills, she was growing as a very gifted artist. She was 32 when the book came out.

It’s been an amazing journey, and I’ve never been more thrilled to have a book published. After living with this book for so long, I’ve learned many lessons all writers eventually learn:

Listen to the experts – listen to the professionals who know the business. Their critiques are priceless, even when they hurt or surprise us. We are stepping into a world we may not know how to navigate without their help, advice, and guidance. We must follow others who’ve gone before us.

Pray – The Great Author of all the world is wise and knows his plan for our lives. We must pray for his wisdom, leadership, and inspiration. We pray for discernment to know the road he’s calling us to walk. There are no journeys in this life we should take without God walking with us and leading us.

Be flexible – We may think we know where we’re going, but we seldom do. We can be stubborn to the point that we miss what God has for us, or we can be flexible and recognize when he’s leading us down another path than we expected, at least for now.

Learn the craft – None of us are born writers. We may have a God-given gift with words and storytelling, but we still need to learn the craft and the genre we plan to write. Each genre has its requirements and expectations. We are writing for the audience we serve, not our egos. We must be teachable and diligent.

Accept the painful critiques – If we want our books to be the best they can be and to truly bless readers, we need to accept and learn from the painful critiques. We have to crucify our egos so that our books can grow and develop well.

Let the book develop a life of its own – As we allow the process to help us grow as writers, our books start to develop a life of their own. By the time it’s published, it’s no longer our “baby” but, hopefully, a beautiful story God can use in readers’ lives. That amazes me, and I think it should amaze all writers.

Watch the characters grow – Part of the process is also seeing our characters grow. I look at how Drandar has become a character beyond what I first created. He’s become more real, and he’s developing more depth the longer I know him and write about him. It’s a fun, weird part of writing that can be surprising.

The best part is a child’s delight – As a children’s book writer, nothing beats seeing a child delight in the story we’ve shared. It is the best feeling ever – good, right up there with first kisses and holding a baby good. Okay, maybe that’s a little bit of hyperbole. However, that’s what we’re here for. We want our readers to love our stories. That’s why we write them. When a child loves our story and can’t wait for the next one to be published, it feels a whole lot like we’ve finally reached our goal and realized our dreams.

When I think of all these lessons, I guess sixteen years isn’t too long for a story to be born, but I hope I don’t have too many more that take that long.

MORE ABOUT DRANDAR THE DRAGON KNIGHT

Drandar is the dragon that has been prophesied. He will help the king build a strong, safe kingdom as one of his faithful knights. But Drandar doesn't seem to fit what a knight should be or even what a real dragon should look like. He's what Seraphina calls a "late bloomer." Drandar is droopy, discouraged, and doubting. Will he ever become the knight he's supposed to be?

This chapter book is written for upper elementary to early middle school readers.

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MORE ABOUT TERRIE HELLARD-BROWN

Empowering families to disciple the next generation every day and everywhere is Terrie Hellard-Brown’s mission. Sparking Everyday Discipleship, the podcast she hosts, focuses on discipleship, great books, and sparking important conversations with our children. Terrie is a writer, speaker, coach, missionary, and mom with a BA in sociology and psychology, an MA in education, and is currently working on her DMin.

Her books include:

• Up, Down, and All Around: A Handbook for Discipling Our Children Based on Deuteronomy 6

• Building Character Through Picture Books: 25 Family Devotions Based on Favorite Picture Books

• A World of Pancakes (a picture book including recipes from around the world)

• Izzy’s Notebook (a picture book about forgiveness and living the One Anothers)

• Drandar the Dragon Knight (chapter book about being who God created us to be).

Reach Terrie at: contact@terriehellardbrown.com

www.terriehellardbrown.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/terriehellardbrown

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ter_h_brown/

MY REVIEW *****

What a delightful read. I’m not a kid, but I got lost in the story as it appealed to the kid in me through vivid descriptions and imagery. Drandar is a good read for any child with special needs or who feels different and unaccepted. Drandar’s struggles to be like other dragons and to find his true purpose will resonate with all kids, for everyone struggles with insecurities of some kind.

I recommend this book.

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