Author: Nyx

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#ZineWriMo Day 5: Make a Zine of Things That Inspire You

Hello, hello, hello zine friends. I don’t know about you, but I slept in big time this morning and only realised later this afternoon that today’s task was to make a zine. Nothing like being late to your own party, eh?

Luckily enough I had the day to myself to work on a zine about the things that inspire me.

As per usual, I had no idea what I was going to make besides the idea from the prompt. So I got out most of my stuff.

The front and back covers popped into my mind first.

I don’t usually break out the ruler for zinemaking, but I wanted to be a little more careful than my usual version of whinging it. I liked thinking about the things that inspire me, though everything really falls under two categories for me – colours and people. Haha.

If you’d like to see the finished mini-zine, check out my Instagram for a little video flip-through.

Just to be clear, these prompts are meant to be fun. Not stressful. Not making you pull your hair own wondering how the heck you are going to do them. No one’s world is going to end if you miss a day or if you start making a zine of things that inspire you but don’t finish it today.

The only reason that I am going for doing all of the tasks on all of the days is because I came up with the daily prompts. I feel like it would be a little weird if I didn’t at least get close to getting everything done.

That’s me for today, friends. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your Sunday. I’ll be back tomorrow with some happy mail and a much easier ZineWriMo prompt for the day.

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ZineWriMo Day 4 – Share Your Goal(s)/Plan(s)

Hello and happy weekend, zine friends! It is picture perfect here in the land of South Australia. A beautiful spring day to share your plans and/or goals for the month.

In the world of NaNoWriMo, people tend to describe themselves as planners or pantsers. The latter basically means diving in without a plan and just going for it (by the seat of your pants).

Whether your plan is to make a zine, write a novel, or get the house clean, I think it’s good to figure out what kind of person you are. For the most part, I’m a pantser who likes goals. Plans are great, but my mental and physical health demand flexibility. I get too irritated when things don’t go to plan to actually make firm plans.

But that’s just me! Take some time to get a sense of what you like to do.

Before I share my goals, I want to mention that I am also the kind of person to try to do all the things and then be happy with whatever it is I end up with. So please don’t feel like you need to have anything beyond ‘make/finish a zine’ as a goal.

Here are my goals:

*Complete ZineWriMo – don’t miss any days
*Complete all ZineWriMo mini-zines
*Complete mini-zines: Little Reminders 2, Little Reminders 3
*Complete all writing for Don’t Call Me Cupcake 9

Bonus round:

*Complete Dear Anonymous 7
*Complete Don’t Call Me Cupcake 9
*Complete Don’t Call Me Cupcake 9.5

That’s me. It feels like a mountain to deal with at the moment, but we’ll see how things go. Are you sharing your plans and/or goals? Leave a link in the comments so we can all support each other.

Until tomorrow!

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Call for Calls for Submissions: Spread the Word About Your Zine/Distro/Library!

Zine Calls for Submissions

Share your call for submissions, let people know about your distro or zine library, announce your newest zine, let people know you are crowdfunding a zine project… If you have an announcement to make that has to do with zines, do it here! Sea Green Zines wants to be your megaphone. Even better? It’s an automatic shout out on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr when you advertise here.

Big fuzzy love hearts to those who have a .jpg call for subs, but all are welcome. Get in touch by emailing theauthor[at]inkyblots.com or comment below.

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Zine Review: Connection Edit: Shine

Connection Edit: Shine
Jessica Maybury
www.thejessicamaybury.com
@codenamewallaby

Connection Edit: Shine is a black and white zine collection of blackout poetry. If you’re not familiar, blackout poetry is where you take a piece of text and black out words so the words remaining – your poem – reads as something different to the original.

So if you’re thinking ‘so it’s just a bunch of blacked out words’, then this zine may not be the zine for you. Or you could stick around and let me win you over with my review.

It’s been a while since I’ve sung this particular tune, so I’ll mention that poetry is not a strength of mine. I often don’t understand it and miss whatever points were being made. That being said, I have a strange fascination with blackout poetry.

The text for these poems come from a book called ‘Shine’ given as a gag gift and the last magazine Jessica’s nana read before the end. (Sorry for your loss.) I found the juxtaposition of flippant and serious a strange one, but I wonder if it was intentional in showing that you can make serious out of funny and vice versa no matter what the text.

The poems can be a little hit and miss, but when it hits, it does so in ways I love. Phrases like “To My Nobody” and “You have to shine bright” stuck with me and made my mind drift pleasantly from the poem at hand. No big spoilers here, but the poem on page 7 is definitely my favourite.

I found myself rebelling at the thought of ever finding out what the original text read beneath the swathes of black.

Honestly, I missed the aesthetics for the words on the first read through. I was so focused on words and possible meaning, but I don’t see that as a bad thing. I am glad that I went through to check out the visuals because I liked the various washi tapes and pictures used.

If you’re curious about blackout poetry, check out this zine.

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ZineWriMo Day 3 – Make Mini-Zine Blanks

G’day zine friends, and welcome to day three of ZineWriMo. I hope this fine day finds you well and ready for some hands on zine stuff.

It’s time to make some mini-zine blanks!

Mini-zines have a special place in my heart because they tend to be easy(easier) to make, faster to make, and make for fun trades. They’re light, too, which can help save on postage.

I count anything smaller than A5 as a mini-zine, but for the purposes of today’s prompt, I’m talking about the one-page mini that leaves you with eight ‘pages’ – including front and back ‘covers’ – to use. If you’re feeling sneaky, you could use the inside as well, but that’s up to you.

My mini-zines!

I recommend making six if you want to get ahead and have blanks ready for all the ‘make a zine’ prompts this month. But there’s no reason you can’t make fifty, make one, or make different sized zines for the ‘make a zine’ prompts. I made eight only because that’s how many sheets of paper I pulled out of the packet. (Plus I know I need at least three for zines I plan to make in the near future.)

If you aren’t sure how to make a one-page mini-zine or would like to dust off your mini-zine skills, check out the Zine Videos Page. There are how-to videos (the second video on the page will show you one folding method) as well as mini documentaries about zines and the like.

Enjoy!

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Zine Review: Taking Up Space

Taking Up Space
Holly Casio
www.coolschmool.com

Taking Up Space is a black and white mini-zine comic about taking up space with your body.

This zine is so sweet and sad at the same time. As someone who takes up a considerable amount of space, I identified a lot with how uncomfortable it can be. It’s not only physically uncomfortable to try to make myself smaller for other people and their perceived expectations, but it’s mentally uncomfortable, too.

I like Holly’s art style. It’s soft and fun – perfectly suited to the zine and its message without taking away from it.

The comic ended on a lovely, fun note that left me feeling good about a subject that it’s all too easy to feel upset about. In few words and fewer panels, I felt empowered to give the world the metaphorical bird and take up whatever space I need to take. Love it.

If you take up space, then pick up this zine.

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ZineWriMo Day 2: Brainstorm Zine Ideas

Hello and happy Thursday, zine friends!

It’s day two of ZineWriMo and, if you hadn’t noticed, I went for the slow rev up to actually making zines this month. Get a firm foundation and all that good stuff before jumping right into making things. (Of course, that doesn’t stop you from jumping right in and making things.)

Today the prompt is brainstorming zine ideas.

“What do I make a zine about?” is a variation of a very common question for creatives. There can be so much energy, but with no idea what to do with that energy, things can get frustrating. Hence brainstorming ideas.

How you choose to brainstorm is up to you. There are heaps of possibilities out there from mind mapping to writing down everything you can think of as fast as you can. You may want to write down or print out 51 Ideas for Your Next Zine as a way of getting started.

There’s no wrong way to do it so long as you find your way to inspiration.

How you choose to store your ideas also comes with many options. One fun idea I’ve always liked is the idea jar where you write down your ideas on slips of paper and stick them in a jar (or a box):

Whenever you’re ready to start a new project but aren’t sure what to do, you can pluck an idea or two out of the jar to get you started.

This is my version of the idea jar. It goes with me wherever I go and contains all the strange and wonderful (and not so wonderful) ideas for what to make zines about. Sometimes it’s an idea for a whole zine, while other things are rough sketches or small blurbs to include somewhere. Either way, this little notebook means I don’t forget any ideas I have.

I already have a pretty huge list written down today, so I don’t think I’ll be looking for new zine ideas anytime soon!

Be sure to share links to your posts/pictures showing off your ideas and where you keep them.