When I was nine years old, I came up with a story idea, wrote an essay about it, and proudly told everyone I knew that I was going to publish it. The story was called Frindle the Turkey Chicken, and it followed a sweet, determined turkey trying to escape being eaten by her farmer. I loved it so much that I read it aloud to my entire extended family at Christmas dinner. I even asked my dad how I could publish it, but at nine, I didn’t know where to begin. Still, the dream stuck with me, and when it came time to complete my Visualization capstone in college, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

I tracked down an old home video of myself reading the original story and transcribed it word for word. From there, I rewrote the entire story, made a few changes (including the main character’s name from Frindle to Tucker and switching the turkey from female to male), and began editing. My first draft was over 2,000 words which was way too long for a children’s book, so I spent the next five weeks cutting it down to around 800 words.

Once the writing was solid, the illustrating began: I had two months to illustrate a front and back cover plus 32 interior pages. At first, I only planned to illustrate 10 pages because I was overwhelmed by the scope. But as I worked through it, I realized that telling the story right mattered more than keeping things minimal. I reworked pages multiple times, changed fonts, redrew the cover three times. It was a process full of trial and error, but also one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done.