Josh Vogt's Blog, page 10

Write Strong: The Never-Ending Story…

“We’re all stories in the end. Just make it a good one, eh?” -          Dr. Who, The Big Bang “Everybody has a secret world inside of them. I mean everybody. All of the people in the whole world, I mean everybody — no matter how dull and boring they are […]

“Liberator” – Short RPG adventure story now out from Privateer Press

Privateer Press has an ongoing series of short fiction (almost flash fiction, in some cases) that highlight adventures and characters from their Iron Kingdoms game setting. I had the fun of contributing to the most recent release of these Iron Kingdoms Excursions with my short piece, “Liberator.” Here’s the synopsis snippet: […]

Fantastical Failure – Learning and Growing Despite and Because of It

Failing as a writer sucks. Can we all just be honest about that? Nobody goes into a writing project or career thinking, “I can’t wait to be a huge failure at this!” Yet failure is inevitable. In fact, for the vast majority of writers, it’s practically the norm. We face […]

Here We Go Again – Recognizing Health & Fitness Cycles

Writing is made up of cycles, often ones that constantly overlap one another. We are forever absorbing new input, generating new ideas, brainstorming new worlds, creating characters, drafting scenes, finishing drafts, revising, submitting, publishing…and then doing it all over again and again. There’s no real end to a writer’s work, […]

Write Strong Guest Post: Navigating Cons in a Healthy Way

by Danielle M. LeFevre Writing is too often a lonely, sedentary profession. For many years I approach writing and health the same way: something I wanted to do, but couldn’t find the time. That changed during the first year of my MFA program in 2007. In an introductory course, we learned […]

Catch a Few Winks, Lose a Few Pounds – The Importance of Sleep

Does sleep annoy you as much as it does me? Honestly, what’s with this whole having to let the body go into a nightly hibernation state? And don’t get me started on dreams. It’s like our brains want to remind us how weird we are. Many writers have imagined a […]

Them’s the Splits – Flexibility & Stretching Yourself

I like diversifying myself as much as possible as a writer, both in my fiction and nonfiction work. This means expanding my experience in different genres, industries, story lengths, formats, and styles. It’s a way to stretch myself, a way to push myself beyond current limits and reach for new […]

Mind Over Matter – Your Mental Health

When you get down to it, writers can be an exceptionally honest group when it comes to speaking frankly about their personal struggles. I’ve heard many writers—some of them close friends—open up about their struggles with mental health and illness. It runs the gamut from depression and anxiety, manic depression, […]

MileHiCon…or bust

Well, minutes before setting into the drive for MileHiCon, my car’s radiator decided to weep big green tears in the final bouts of its death. Knew it was coming, but the timing could’ve been better. Not wanting to shell out $600 for the mechanic, I instead tracked down a replacement […]

Bestsellers and Bodybuilders – The Pitfalls of Comparison

“I want to be the next [INSERT NAME OF RICH AND/OR FAMOUS AUTHOR HERE]!” Even if we’ve never vocalized that, many writers have felt that desire in their deepest, darkest of hearts. We see someone’s career skyrocket until they’re a household name and have movie deals galore, or we read […]