Any advice for a first time perzine writer?

[flowerfuck]

I've finally mustered up the guts to write my very own perzine, after years of reading and admiring others. Now my only problem is I don't know where to start.

What have you written in your first issue? Do you talk about where you live, where you've grown up, what you love? Long term stuff or in the minute this-is-what-I'm-thinking-about-right-now stuff? How much do you think a reader wants or needs to know about you to be interested in reading your perzine?

Comments

[eicastic]

hey, that's a great question! (and yes good, write a perzine! write a BUNCH of perzines! c:)

my very first perzine was really short and didn't have much substance to it, so when i decided to make a more "serious" perzine, my goal was just to have something longer/more in-depth. i tend to write zines based around a theme, and the first issue of suburban gothic was themed on winter. so yeah, it was a lot of thoughts about winter, photos of winter, memories of winter, a few journal-type entries from that winter that i wrote it, etc.

but the best advice i have is this: there is no wrong way to write a perzine. write about what interests you, not necessarily an audience. if you want to use it as a forum to talk about yourself, your thoughts, what's happening to you in your life right now, go for it. if you want to use it as a place to talk about your interests, do the thing. i literally wrote a zine about denny's once, so you can write a zine about anything.

good luck!! i hope you write lots of zines. c:

[flowerfuck]

I really like the idea of having a theme for each issue! I guess it's difficult because it's my very first one, and there's so much I want to write about. I think maybe I'll make the first one an ode to analouge communication, and just let loose about how much I love zines and snail mail and stationary.

Thanks so much for your advice! Is there any chance I could get my hands on a copy of suburban gothic? It sounds really cool and I'd love to read it!

[eicastic]

happy to help! c: and i'd be happy to send you a zine of mine as an example - suburban gothic is mostly out of print but i've got a couple other serials and some one-shots. why don't you shoot me an email (logiospress at gmail) and we can chat some more about it. c: