Making Life Podcast

009 | Fantasy Author, Illustrator, and Cosplayer Alex Katz

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Alex Katz is a graphic designer, illustrator, and writer. In addition to being a meticulous and thorough creator of his own fictional world, he also spends time delving into and sharing worlds others have created, such as through his popular and high-level Harry Potter cosplay.

find Alex on:

Instagram: http://instagram.com/alex.r.katz/

Twitch: http://twitch.tv/alex_r_katz

In this episode, we discuss:

  • The value of having a career-planning conversation that considers what we love to do and how to find a way to make it pay the bills
  • What it means to be able to "art on command", and how we all have different things we can do on command vs when inspiration strikes
  • How being independent sometimes means sharing your challenges with others
  • Longsword and stage combat training - and their impact on other areas of life (fantasy writing and confidence in the face of creepy dudes, respectively)
  • Building your schedule to allow time and mental energy to do your creative work
  • How we are 100% convinced Alex is going to have the next hugely successful fantasy series, complete with books, movies, a line of merch, etc etc - just sayin.
  • Insomnia, worldbuilding, and whether dreaming up scenarios for your characters while taking a scalding hot shower is or or not work
  • Writer's block: plot devices to use instead of giving up!
  • How having a very meta chat with friends about one's work can lead to future reflection on how one views war, masculinity, etc.
  • Favorite writers and The Shrine of (V.E.) Schwab
  • NaNoWriMo - pantsers vs planners vs plantsers
  • Harry Potter cosplay, and how Alex will be incorporating trans support (ribbon? bracelet?) into future cosplay, because it's the right thing to do
  • The joys of spending one's birthday as Harry Potter at Universal Studios, Florida
  • Intellectual property law, sharing one's artistic process online, and being extremely skeptical of the powers that control all of the distribution of basically everything
  • How choosing to NOT do the thing that everyone else thinks is the pinnacle, best, most desirable thing in your field might just lead to much more happiness
  • Procrastination and the power of having lots of projects on the backburner that you can turn to when frustration with your main project requires a bout of it
  • ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR EVERYTHING, GUYS!
  • Having to go back to "real" work/life after a a long time of being able to focus almost exclusively on passion projects, and how it's depressing
    • ...more
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