Words I Held

Brainstorming Open Call Zine

My 8 page zine PDF is due on Sunday. It’s for an online zine making on Canva workshop I took with Wasted Ink Zine Distro based in Phoenix, Arizona, you can check them out here. I haven’t made a draft yet as I don’t really have a solid idea.

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I do know that I’ll have fifteen print copies. I want to go through my hoard and use items I can place in the zine. I have this cool wide washi tape you can use to make pockets, white rolodex cards with slots you can put business cards in, two different sizes of coin envelopes, Classiky maroon tags, cardstock cutoffs from riso zines, colored copy paper, oil pastels, and confetti crayons.

It would be cool to make zines meant to be used for open calls I curate. I think it’d be fun to tape in coin envelopes with a postage stamp each, or maybe I washi tape a stamped envelope with my mailing address. The small envelopes can hold prompts. And they can use the rolodex cards to insert a slim object for me to collect and they can mail in their story with it. Or decorate the cardstock strip of paper. I wanna get a P.O. Box, that would be really cool. Then I can make the zine if I have enough submissions and send them a free copy.

I would post an online version of the zine on this website so anyone can submit. And if they request and pay, I can mail them the physical zine with all its goodies and maybe some bonus extras. I wanna make a draft by hand using the crayons, oil pastels, colored paper, and gel pens I have. I also have a vintage dymo tape label maker. Then refine it just a bit in Canva. I’ll also create a google form so folks can submit online and provide my email address in the zine too if they find it easier.

I don’t know what the prompts or theme should be though. Maybe they can create flash fiction? They can make a small drawing or cut out an image and put it through the slots. What if I create a Spotify playlist and they can write anything from it? Or draw? As long as it’s printable in a zine, they can submit. I won’t accept anything hateful or discriminatory though.

I’ll have three different prompt sets for inspiration:

It would be good for all of them to fall under some sort of theme, but I do like the idea of randomness hehe. I think I’ll have the due date be September 23rd, 2025. Yup, next year. That way I can sell this zine in a number of zine fests. But what to call it? Maybe Words I Held For You Vol. 1? That would be cool. If they mail their submission, they literally held it, and of course they’d hold the zine, whether physically or on their phone hehe.

They can submit 1-3 submissions for each prompt set. I’d only print two submissions total from each individual. They can do it anonymously as well. Okay, I’m liking how this is going so far hehe. I’m having a better idea of what this could look like. I just need to blueprint it.

I think that’s enough brainstorming. I’ll work on the zine today and hopefully have another update tonight. I’m feeling more confident now and I know I can pull this off.

I got this.