How I Created a (Digital) Zine in Just 1 Week
An inside look at the process — and how you can get started, too!
In late 2021, I hit a major creative slump. The projects I thought I’d make progress on during the year had collected both literal and digital dust. New ideas were scarce. And I found myself frustrated with my lack of productivity and my unmet needs for creative community and support.
For some additional context: I’d started a new job in 2021. In spring that year, I transitioned from the world of freelancing and setting my own schedule back to a 9-to-5 where I was writing, editing, and making things all day.
I like my job (I’m still there, through acquisitions and management changes), but with all the emphasis on my career that year, my own creative practice was suffering. I was productive, sure, but not in a way that felt fulfilling to me personally. Worst of all, I’d forgotten what I’d enjoyed most about creating in the first place.
But one day, something amazing happened. And the flames of my creativity were fanned once more.
In December, just before going on an end-of-the-year break for the holidays, I was scrolling through LinkedIn. Someone — a connection of a connection, maybe — popped up in my feed with a post about creating the first issue of their own digital magazine. I don’t remember any details about it now. But almost instantly, I had a thought:
If I were making a magazine, what would it be about?
When the workday had ended, and my vacation had officially begun, I sat down to brainstorm what I wanted to cover. It took just a few minutes to build a solid list. And best of all, I realized that I had everything I needed to get started.
Within about a week (give or take for family celebration time), I released issue 1 of The Muse Manifesto to the world.
I made the zine for creators, especially those who liked using things like journaling, tarot cards, and rituals to tap into their visionary power. I also wanted to be the support I so badly needed at the time. My wish was that anyone who read the zine would know that they aren’t alone on their creative journey.
I put together the first issue with the New Year in mind. It included journal prompts to plan for the new year, instructions on writing a creative manifesto, advice on detoxing from social media, bullet journal creation, a tarot spread, and a bunch more totaling 68 pages.
Now, for the first time, I want to share my digital zine-making blueprint. (And FYI: these are also great pointers for creating blogs, websites, books, podcasts, and anything else you want to share with the world.)
Here are the steps I took to make it happen (with alliteration because that’s fun):
1. Investigate
Who is your target audience for your zine? What message do you have for them?
It’s okay if you’re not sure of your target audience — or even if your target audience is yourself. When I began my zine, I wanted to reclaim my enthusiasm for my creativity, so I put together the kinds of things that I found inspiring. I also considered other people I knew, who also seemed burnt out creatively. What kinds of things would someone who’d lost touch with their creative practice need to hear heading into a new year? That’s the question I aimed to answer as I developed my ideas.
2. Ideate
What topics do you want to cover in your zine? Brainstorm ideas for the types of articles, imagery, graphics, lists, and more that you want to include.
Some of the most fun is coming up with an interesting name and an eye-catching cover image. I had chosen the name The Muse Manifesto a while before creating the zine. In fact, I was going to use it to start up a Substack that year! I had shelved that idea, but I still liked the name. With the theme of the muse in mind, I chose a photo I’d taken of a statue of the muse Thalia for the cover. I applied a glitchy filter to it and decided that was going to be part of the design direction for that and subsequent issues.
3. Imitate
Look through similar zines or other publications you like. What stands out to you? If you’re new to making zines, or designing in general, pay attention to things like font use, page layout, and image placement. (Or, you know, don’t. Punk rock.)
While you could easily swap this with the previous step, I recommend doing it after you hone in on your own idea. This way, you’re not stuck on comparing yourself to others or worried about how something has “already been done.” Don’t let yourself fall into the comparison trap too early in the process!
Before creating The Muse Manifesto, I hadn’t really done any design work beyond making a few graphics for Instagram. In fact, I made the whole thing in Canva, using a few pre-built templates and filters for part of the design. Looking back, there are definitely things I know to do differently now. But making issue 1, I let go of the tendency to force it to be “professional” and just did what felt fun at the time.
4. Inventory
Have you already created anything (blog posts, graphics, art pieces, etc.) that you could reuse or repurpose for your zine? List it out, and determine whether you need to make any edits or can use the content as-is.
By final count, I fit 14 different articles, of varying lengths, into the first issue of the zine. How did I write, edit, design, and promote within a week? Content recycling! Of those 14 articles, about half were either previously written or adapted from other things I’d made. (For example, the series of Patreon posts I eventually revised to make my book The Creative Arcana.) The other half, I wrote in an excited frenzy in between family celebrations.
I also added quotes from writers and artists to my own photos and interspersed them between the articles, like where you would see ads in most magazines. I had been collecting a document of inspiring quotes about creativity for a while, so I used this to make some quick editorial decisions.
5. Innovate
What new material do you want to add to your zine? If you’re setting a hard deadline, consider how long it might take you to write and/or design it.
Most of the new material I came up with was on the shorter end — under 500 words. The article on taking a social media detox was probably the longest new article I wrote, but the idea had been percolating for a bit. I set a deadline to get all writing and editing done by about the third day of the project, so that I could deal with the learning curve of designing my own zine. It’s important to note that I was on vacation, so I had most of my days free. For later issues, I gave myself more time to work around the day job.
6. Iterate
Gather all the content you want to include, write and edit if needed, and begin designing. Experiment with layouts and design direction. You’ll likely go through a few different drafts.
My domain is in writing and editing, so that had been the easiest part for me. The design portion was the toughest part of this project since I had no real basis for comparison. I carved out a few days and did pretty much nothing but design.
This was a process of trial and error — and patience. I downloaded a lot of PDFs because I’d have a “final” copy, spot an error, fix the error, and then download another version only to repeat the process over and over. (When I went outside at the end of the week to go to brunch, I’d forgotten what it was like to look at something other than a screen. Don’t do this to yourself.)
7. Introduce
Now it’s time to put your work out there. Think of how you’re going to promote it, where it will live for people to access it, and how much (if anything) you want to charge.
I built a page on my website on day 8 of the project, so the zine itself was already done. I also wrote a blog post that recapped some of what had been in my “letter from the editor” in the issue. The PDF was linked on the webpage, so it was free. It’s still available for $0, but now it lives on Gumroad (which is great for this sort of thing but by no means the only site out there).
Finally, I dropped a few social posts promoting issue 1 on January 1, 2022, and thankfully had supportive friends who shared them. I also learned not to be afraid of the repeated “ICYMI” post in case, you know, anyone missed it.
To summarize:
Decide what kind of zine you want to make. It doesn’t have to be a crystal clear idea, with well-researched customer personas or anything. Just start with a theme or idea and go from there.
Have fun brainstorming. Gather inspiration from other zines, books, blogs, etc. Then make a “table of contents” wishlist. Remember to include things you’ve already made because there’s a chance that not everyone has seen them before.
Play by the rules — or don’t. Get experimental with it. Use templates if they help you work faster, but remember that they’re guidelines rather than rules. Edit diligently, or learn to love your typos.
Set deadlines. These apply to the creation process and the final publication. This way, you’re not forever iterating or holding it back because “it’s not ready yet.” Stay as close to on schedule as you can.
Promote it! You spent the time on it. Don’t be shy.
And that’s how you can make a zine!
So now, I’ll ask you the same question I asked myself:
If you were creating a zine, what would it be about?
Share in the comments below (or tell me about your own zine, if you have one already).