Author: Valerie Welsh

Think about your characters and how you want their personalities to be. As you write with that in mind; supernaturally, your characters will have individual voices that other people can see when they read your words. Is your character a happy or light-hearted person? Do not write about them when you are sad or depressed. […]

You need to engage your emotions when you write. Your emotions will become a part of the pages of your book. If I wrote something that made me cry and had my editor read it and they cried, I knew I had “nailed” it. Emotions do translate onto your pages so use them.

If you are a writer a healthy fantasy life is very helpful. See your world, don’t just talk about it. Going from fantasy to paper is a process and takes practice. I struggled with this for a long time. I had a healthy fantasy life and envisioned my worlds in great detail in my head, […]

Being able to visualize your characters and their story really helps with writing the story and infusing it with personality. Spend time daydreaming about your story and write what you see. My first draft was all visual with almost no dialog. I filled in the dialog after the bulk of the story was fleshed out.

An example of a strong character with a moral code would be John Hindmarsh’s hero, Jack Foster, from the “Jack Foster Space Opera Series”. In the first chapter Jack is accosted by a smuggler who tries to get him to carry some contraband for him. Jack has tiny security cameras on his person, which he […]

I like smart characters in the novels I read and write. Characters who use their reasoning skills to think things through and come up with a workable plan. Characters who just flit around, stumbling onto the right thing to do without any thought behind it; relying on plain luck to succeed, do not keep my […]

I really like the omniscient third-person narrator style of writing, because the narrator is privy to all facts and events relating to the story and can convey all characters’ thoughts and feelings to the reader. Each character gets a voice and I’m not stuck with staying with one character and not being able to see […]

One of the issues I have a problem with is what I call the ‘Charlie Brown’ syndrome. Where the hero never seems to catch a break and the ‘bad guy’ is always one step ahead until the very end. I find this style of writing tedious. You won’t find this in my novels. One of […]

I love Christmas. It is my favorite time of the year. I usually have all decorations and shopping done by the beginning of December. Then I can focus on baking goodies. I have made a lot of my own gifts over the years, so I start that in January. Sweaters, shawls, quilts, ornaments and jewelry […]

I am a linear writer. I write from the beginning and tell the characters story that way. Some of the websites I accessed to learn how to write said I should write the ending first, then go to the beginning. Other websites suggested I make copious notes and fit them into the story where they […]