#56: Victoria S. Walsh Reveals What Everyone Gets Wrong About Writing Plus Size Heroines

Off The Shelf with Morgann Book

Victoria S. Walsh, author of the upcoming debut novel 'The Iron Hex,' shares her journey from childhood dreamer to published writer, discuss

Key takeaways

Manifesting is effective when paired with action—writing down desired outcomes as if they've already happened creates a roadmap for achievement.
Self-love and personal rituals, like burning past struggles, help clear mental blocks and fuel creative ambition.

Main topics

Manifesting and personal vision rituals
The journey from childhood dreamer to published author

Notable quotes

I write it from the perspective of everything that I wanted to happen having already happened.

When I say negative things to my brain, my brain believes it. And when I say positive things to my brain, my brain believes it.

Conclusion

Victoria S. Walsh's story exemplifies how passion, persistence, and in

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Support comes from WISE, the smart way to manage the currencies you need around the world. Your life is global. Your money should be too. Some providers promise no fees on overseas transfers. Don't be fooled. Extra costs often hide in bloated exchange rates. Choose WISE. You can send, spend and receive money in over 40 currencies. Count on the exchange rates that you'd usually see on Google. That's how millions save billions on hidden fees. Be smart. Get WISE. Visit WISE.com. Speaker 2 (0:32) I'm a 1993 baby. I grew up in the peak period of like, the smaller you are, the better. I hit puberty and immediately got hips when like Paris Hilton was at her peak. And I love that girl, but she was not good for my mental Speaker 3 (0:46) health when I was 12. I Speaker 2 (0:47) want to write plus size main characters. I want them to be described as plus size. I want them to be drawn as plus sized. And then I want them to have like so much other stuff going on. I want to write what I wanted to see. Speaker 3 (1:02) Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Off the Shelf. Today's guest has spent years building an audience online through self-love. fashion and storytelling. Victoria S. Walsh has known her entire life that she wanted to be an author and now it is finally happening. Her debut novel, The Iron Hex, releases August 4th, 2026. And today we are getting into everything about following your dream, to writing a good yearn, to what it is actually like to publish a debut novel. Victoria, welcome Speaker 2 (1:27) to Off The Shelf. Hi, Speaker 3 (1:29) I'm so excited to Speaker 2 (1:30) be here. Speaker 3 (1:30) Thank Speaker 2 (1:30) you Speaker 3 (1:30) for being Speaker 2 (1:31) here. Speaker 3 (1:31) Thank you for making the drive Speaker 2 (1:32) -in just as I did. Absolutely. Before we get into anything, you were someone Speaker 3 (1:37) who who thought manifesting was bullshit at one point. Now you are someone who believes in it. What is the secret sauce to manifesting and creating a vision board? Speaker 2 (1:46) Yeah. Okay. So I definitely, when I was like in my teens, I was like, it's not real. It's not real. And everybody who says it's real is a liar. And then I just kind of started to realize, and it kind of happened through my self-love journey as well, where I was like, oh, like when I say negative things to my brain, my... brain believes it. And then when I say positive things to my brain, my brain believes it. And then I had this like through line where I was like, oh, so if I believe that the things I want to happen are going to happen, then what's going to stop them from happening? So for me, I do like a little ritual at the end of the year, every year. I go to a cafe. I write down like everything bad that happened to me. And then I literally burn it. Speaker 3 (2:37) Literally. Everything bad throughout the year? Everything Speaker 2 (2:39) bad throughout the year. Everything that I wasn't happy about, everything that I wished could have done better, anything that didn't feel good, any conflict, anything. And, you know, there's, I'm very witchy. And so there is like a, there's something to like burning away things that you don't want anymore. And so I'll literally burn it. And then I do a letter. From January 1st of the next year. Speaker 3 (3:06) Got it. And I Speaker 2 (3:07) write it from the perspective of everything that I wanted to happen having already happened. Speaker 3 (3:12) Wow. Yeah. Speaker 2 (3:14) So it's not even like I want this thing to happen. I write it from the perspective of like in 365 days from now, what is everything that I wanted to happen? And then that's what I do. Okay. Yeah. I Speaker 3 (3:27) might have to start doing that. Because I... I don't think manifesting is bullshit. I'm in a definitely like middle ground of it where I haven't figured out the right way to do it, I guess. Speaker 2 (3:40) I think I'm like a firm believer in manifesting and knowing what you want is really important, but you can't just want it. You have to work towards it. And so for me, having that moment where I write down everything that happened, it kind of gives me a guidebook of exactly what I need to do in order to make what I want happen. And then I just bust ass. And I'm constantly working. So that's part of it. But I know what I want. And I think that's the most important part. Speaker 3 (4:11) Yeah. Speaker 1 (4:12) Damn. Speaker 3 (4:13) Yeah. Okay. I'm Speaker 1 (4:15) kind of sold on it now. Speaker 3 (4:17) Let's go Speaker 2 (4:17) back to the beginning a little bit. What was Speaker 3 (4:18) it like growing up with a dream of becoming an author? Speaker 2 (4:22) Yeah. I mean, I've said this before. I'll probably say it a million times. It's so hard for me to explain because I don't have a memory where I didn't love reading, where I didn't love telling stories, where I wasn't like, yeah, I want to write a book and I want to be an author and I want to see my name on those shelves. And it was just like growing up loving storytelling so much just meant that I was constantly filling myself up with it. Right. So I was always reading. I really was the kid with her nose stuck in a book. Like I, but I don't just love books. Right. Like I loved all kinds of storytelling, video games, movies, TV. Like I love a good story. And so for me, it was consuming a lot of those stories. When I was a kid, it was like, and I'm writing an original story and it was just the Little Mermaid a little different. You know what I mean? So like it was. coming up with ideas and feeling brave enough to try and write those ideas down. And they were bad when I was young. But nobody's good at writing when they're like 12. No. Right? No. So it was just, it's so hard to explain, but it's like literally just everything I always knew I wanted. Speaker 3 (5:31) Now, have you gone back recently? I know your dad kept those stories that you wrote. Have you gone back recently and read any of them? No. Speaker 2 (5:40) He's got them all in this. My dad is like, I love my family so much. And my dad has this like folder of like things that he kept from like my brother and I's childhood. Speaker 1 (5:53) And Speaker 2 (5:53) so like I painted him something when I was like 10. He still has that on his like, like his dresser in his room. But in this little like, like it's just a file folder. I know there are my stories in there, but I haven't. I haven't. And not yet. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. Maybe someday. But I it's just going to be like kid stuff. Right. But it'll be funny when I do go and read it. Now, Speaker 3 (6:20) when you were like telling friends and family, you were like, I'm going to be an author. What was their reaction? Yeah. Speaker 2 (6:27) My parents are extremely practical people, but they also firmly believe in like. Yeah, like, like, Victoria will follow her dreams. If like Victoria has proven to her to us throughout her childhood that like she'll make it happen if that's what she really wants. But their thing was, can you just get like a job that pays and then right on the side until you make it happen? Like maybe just like a job that you're happy with that could be a career. If the writing thing doesn't pan out, they're big on like. backup plans so when I quit my full-time job in 2024 they were really stressed but Speaker 3 (7:02) they're like that now they're like best decision you ever made Speaker 2 (7:04) best thing you ever did so it's worth it sometimes to take the risk yeah Speaker 3 (7:08) and then can you tell me a little bit how a little bit about how like your own competitiveness forced you to start making YouTube videos yeah Speaker 2 (7:17) okay so envision this. I'm at McMaster University. I'm getting my degree in English, minor in history. I'm like, what am I going to do with my life? I want to be an author, but I need to get a job before I become an author. So I was like, I'm going to go to journalism school. And then I was like, I don't want to be bad at being on camera. I want to be better at being on camera than everyone else by the time I get to journalism school. So I just started making YouTube videos. Speaker 3 (7:46) I was like, great Speaker 2 (7:47) way to get used to being on camera. And being on camera and like I knew I'd have to learn how to edit and I knew I'd have to learn all of these things in journalism school. And I'm very much like I want to get the best grades. I don't want to feel like I'm like if I can learn it now, I want to learn it now so that I can have a leg up. Speaker 3 (8:05) And Speaker 2 (8:05) I had a lot of fun doing it. I was like, wait, am I good at this like whole social media thing? What were those early Speaker 3 (8:11) videos like? What did they look like? What were you filming? Speaker 2 (8:14) They were booktube videos. Speaker 3 (8:15) Okay. Yeah. Speaker 2 (8:16) Yeah. Cause I was doing my English degree. So I was like, Oh, like the best, easiest through line is booktube videos. So I talked a lot about like, I did some writing. I had like a, like, I think I had a series about writing and I talked, I distinctly remember a video where I talked about like the concept of utopia basically being a false. thing like there's no such thing as a utopia because like my utopia might be different than your utopia and then that shit ain't a utopia right so I I did a lot of videos like that and then obviously like book hauls and the book outlet is like so nearby so like it was it was mostly booktube stuff and then uh I pivoted to a little bit more fashion some gaming some self-love and then I was like You know what I'm really good at? Short form. And then we're where we are now. Speaker 3 (9:11) When did it switch where you were doing it for like your competitive nature of journalism to like, oh, I actually like want to be a content creator? Speaker 2 (9:22) Yeah, I first, the first switch was from like, oh, I'm doing this to be good at journalism. And then it switched to, oh, I could turn this into a job in marketing. Speaker 3 (9:34) Oh, okay. So that Speaker 2 (9:36) was the first switch where I was like, I want to get really, really good at this because I can turn this into a job. And then it was, okay, I'm really good at this and I like it and I enjoy making content. And I consider content creation to be mini storytelling, right? Yeah, 100%. It's storytelling in a much shorter form. And so I felt like I was scratching that creative itch. in like quicker like meanwhile I'm writing in the background this whole time multiple projects at a time which is my toxic trait not anymore but it was my toxic trait um so yeah that it was it was kind of like two switches where I was like oh I can make this into a job and then I started getting jobs in marketing and I was like oh but I'm like actually really good at this I'm gonna keep doing it Speaker 3 (10:26) yeah yeah now I think fast forward a little bit, like you're working in content creation. You're also working several other jobs. Speaker 2 (10:33) When Speaker 3 (10:33) did you know you had hit your breaking point and were ready to quit your job in 2024? Speaker 2 (10:37) Yes. So I worked in corporate finance in 2018. Hellish, awful, horrendous. I was commuting from Hamilton, Ontario to downtown Toronto every single day, hour and a half each way, hitting the Aldershot Go at like 8 a.m. Like it was rough. I'm Speaker 3 (10:53) familiar. It was Speaker 2 (10:54) rough. And I... Had a manager. She came in about five months into me doing my job and she just decided that she didn't like me or how I did my work. And I was the youngest person on the floor and I was like more depressed than I've ever been in my life. And I would cry at work all the time. And then like six months later, they restructured the team and they were like, you don't have a job anymore. And I was like, this is like a blessing in disguise. Like this is. Kind of the best thing that could have happened to me because I probably would never have quit and I would have just like suffered. So I vowed to myself then I was like, if I cry again at a job, I'm out. Like if if it gets so out of hand that I'm crying at work. I'm leaving because I'm not going through that again. And in 2024, I really like I enjoyed the organization I worked for and I really loved the