I’ve heard about Mini-Zine March a couple of years ago but I never did it. The reason is that making 31 zines in 31 days sounds a hell of a lot more intensive than making 12 zines in one year (as I did in 2022 as part of That Monthly Zine Project and found it too intensive as it is).
Even though it’s mini-zines we’re talking about, I still find it difficult. I don’t know why, but whenever I plan or am in the process of making a mini-zine, I get a bit of a headache.
As I said in this post, I’m always on the hunt for new zine ideas. Today, while searching for a zinester who may have written a list of prompts for Mini-Zine March, I came across Nyx’s Sea Green Zines website. For those of you just joining us, I’ve been in touch with Nyx for several years now and have had my zines featured on her videos of Happy Mail Monday. I follow her blog and enjoy her posts regularly. So coming across not one but two posts on her blog featuring a list of no less than 50 zine ideas EACH was an absolute treat!
So they may or may not apply to Mini-Zine March, but they sure helped me plump up my own zine-ideas list. Of course, not all 100 ideas applied to me personally (and there were many that I already made as zines) so I made note of the ones that appeal to me the most.
- Take a day/week off the internet and document your thoughts: Once upon a time, I think it was around 2012 or 2013, I did just that. I took about two weeks off the internet and it was one of my most enriching and exciting times of my life! Doing it today may be harder because a. I work in an office and we literally cannot function without the internet, and b. I need Whatsapp at the very least for school-related issues for my kid. So I can’t COMPLETELY disconnect. But if I do come across a week of freedom from the web, I would love to write a zine about that.
- Your very mild superpower: It would either have to do with parenting or with sleeping, I guess. I definitely sleep like a champ.
- Play tourist in your town/spotlight on your hometown: It would be super sweet to write a zine about Jerusalem, the places I like to go to, the places I pass by regularly, my favorite spots, etc.
- Go through any childhood papers/art you have: Being a hoarder since early childhood made it so I got a fuckton of material for such a zine. I’ll need to see if my mom still has my drawings from when I was a kid. I know she kept many of them for years.
- One thing you learned for each year of life you’ve lived: Although I would probably not remember every year of the 40 I’ve lived, I’m sure this would make for a very interesting zine with the years I do remember.
- Explore generators online: Aside from the zine idea generator, there seem to be quite a few more, as Nyx mentions “Vampire Name Generator”, “Shakespear insult generator”. It will make for a silly and funny zine. I do love those!
- Go random article surfing on Wikipedia: I do that without even being prompted. I mostly enjoy the gory ones – articles about diseases, articles about medieval torture methods or capital punishment, serial killers or other crime stories, etc. Writing a zine about it might be cool.
- Your collection: I got so many collections and stories to do with collections, why not compile them into a zine?
- Interview someone: I got the idea of interviewing my kid, maybe come up with a Kids-Say-the-Darnest-Things-style zine. And another idea was a parenting zine. So I thought maybe I should make a second issue of Ima Badass and write a zine about my parenting experiences in the past six years since my daughter was a newborn, and include an interview with her.
Speaking of zine ideas, with all the ideas I came across throughout my zine-making years, I never came across an idea or an actual zine that was a split-zine with a pet. As far as I know, I’m the only zinester who made such a zine (issue 5 of PMS Perzine, split-zine with my dog, Diamond, who wrote a zine called Life’s a Bitch and so Am I! A Canine Zine). Maybe I’m the only zinester who has a dog who can write? Ha-Ha!
Anyway, here’s an idea for you: Write a split-zine with your pet, and then contact me to tell me about it and trade with me.
Will I use any of the above ideas for a couple of mini-zines this month? Maybe. Will I make a timetable for March? Definitely!
There are also other ways to celebrate Mini-Zine March. Instead of making them, you can read them, you can review them, you can trade them, whatever… So whatever I choose to do this month, I’ll try to take it easy, just the way that mini-zines intended.
Peace, love and easy-zines