Writer Making Zines

I’m starting on a creative endeavour I never thought I would try: making zines.

Really, though, it is the medium for a recovering perfectionist. I have talked about perfectionism a lot. Like here. And here. Because I face perfectionist tendencies a lot.

There is a lot of anxiety wrapped up in writing. Revising. Editing. Formatting. Proofing. Reformatting. Proofing again…

I’ve had trouble relaxing in the creativity in the first step: writing.

Definition of a zine

A zine, by urban dictionary definition (which is actually SFW appropriate. Odd, for them), is a cheaply-made, cheaply-priced publication, often in black and white, which is mass-produced via photocopier and bound with staples.

Most zines revolve around a music scene of some sort, but others are dedicated to artwork, poetry, cartoons, editorials and short stories. Because zines do not have any sort of corporate backing, they are very rugged, individualized, and much more charismatic than larger, more popular magazines whose content is often dictated by their advertisers. (still from urban dictionary right now)

Basically, it’s whatever I want it to be. The small format mean I can relax about the publishing of it. It’s smaller scale, limited release, and I control the distribution. There isn’t the expectation of “take over the world” scale (which, yeah, some of my projects have :D).

So I’m giving making zines a try. I’ve got a list of ideas started and drafts to make. Poetry, comics, short stories, flash fiction…a whole list of things to do. There may even be a zine collective in the works (hint: there is).

Want to learn more?

If you’re curious about making zines, I found this awesome video:

how to make a zine from nicki sabalu on Vimeo.

Would you make a zine? Have you ever had a little idea that you wanted to have in its own self-contained package?

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