Legend of Haiku Zine
Aug. 8th, 2020 05:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingSpeaking of zines!
I’ve been spending a lot of time this past week sitting on my couch and riding out waves of bad feelings (this is the world we live in right now, what can you do) while hunting for Korok seeds in Breath of the Wild. I just finished a second completionist run on the Switch version, and I didn’t want to delete everything and start a new game, so I dug my Wii U out of my closet and picked up where I left off in that version of the game in 2017. Along the way, I’ve been coming up with all sorts of silly haiku, like this:
a star fragment falls
as the lone hero watches
from a mountaintop
Haiku are a lot of fun and relatively stress-free, so I think it might be cool to make a Zelda-themed haiku zine. I put together a similar project for the class I taught about The Wind Waker in Spring 2019, so I already have the basic format set up and ready to go. If I were doing this by myself, I’d probably write something like 26 haiku and make three small illustrations (along with the cover page, front colophon, and back bio section) for a total of 32 pages (plus another four for the front and back covers). If I did the interior pages in black and white and used the same small format I used for the class zine, it wouldn’t be expensive to print.
I don’t have much of a following on social media, but it might be interesting to open the zine to contributions. I don’t have the time or energy to put together a big project, so this would be a super casual “email me your haiku and I’ll send you a copy of the zine” sort of deal, as well as a no-pressure “post your work whenever and wherever you like” sort of approach. I might also open artist submissions, with the encouragement that anyone of any skill level is welcome to contribute. I’d use Gumroad to host a free digital copy of the zine once it’s finished, and I might use Etsy to open preorders for at-cost physical copies of the zine (to be printed in addition to the contributor copies) if there’s any interest.
I’d post the announcement on October 1 and close submissions on November 30. I’d try to put the zine together a bit at a time so that I could send it to the printer during the first week of December, and I could spend the rest of the month getting everything ready to go before mailing out the physical zines during the first week of January.
If I were going to open submissions, what I’d need to do in advance would be to:
- find and commission a cover artist
- put together an information sheet
- create a graphic to use for the information sheet
- plan a series of three additional images to use for promotion
- create an account on Tumblr
- create an account on Twitter
- create an account on Gmail
And of course I’d have to write my own contributions in advance so that I don’t get stressed out.
I’m going to take the rest of the month of August to see how I feel, and then I’ll make a decision in September.
I’ve been spending a lot of time this past week sitting on my couch and riding out waves of bad feelings (this is the world we live in right now, what can you do) while hunting for Korok seeds in Breath of the Wild. I just finished a second completionist run on the Switch version, and I didn’t want to delete everything and start a new game, so I dug my Wii U out of my closet and picked up where I left off in that version of the game in 2017. Along the way, I’ve been coming up with all sorts of silly haiku, like this:
a star fragment falls
as the lone hero watches
from a mountaintop
Haiku are a lot of fun and relatively stress-free, so I think it might be cool to make a Zelda-themed haiku zine. I put together a similar project for the class I taught about The Wind Waker in Spring 2019, so I already have the basic format set up and ready to go. If I were doing this by myself, I’d probably write something like 26 haiku and make three small illustrations (along with the cover page, front colophon, and back bio section) for a total of 32 pages (plus another four for the front and back covers). If I did the interior pages in black and white and used the same small format I used for the class zine, it wouldn’t be expensive to print.
I don’t have much of a following on social media, but it might be interesting to open the zine to contributions. I don’t have the time or energy to put together a big project, so this would be a super casual “email me your haiku and I’ll send you a copy of the zine” sort of deal, as well as a no-pressure “post your work whenever and wherever you like” sort of approach. I might also open artist submissions, with the encouragement that anyone of any skill level is welcome to contribute. I’d use Gumroad to host a free digital copy of the zine once it’s finished, and I might use Etsy to open preorders for at-cost physical copies of the zine (to be printed in addition to the contributor copies) if there’s any interest.
I’d post the announcement on October 1 and close submissions on November 30. I’d try to put the zine together a bit at a time so that I could send it to the printer during the first week of December, and I could spend the rest of the month getting everything ready to go before mailing out the physical zines during the first week of January.
If I were going to open submissions, what I’d need to do in advance would be to:
- find and commission a cover artist
- put together an information sheet
- create a graphic to use for the information sheet
- plan a series of three additional images to use for promotion
- create an account on Tumblr
- create an account on Twitter
- create an account on Gmail
And of course I’d have to write my own contributions in advance so that I don’t get stressed out.
I’m going to take the rest of the month of August to see how I feel, and then I’ll make a decision in September.
no subject
Date: 2020-08-10 06:15 pm (UTC)I've never really written haiku on my own outside of homework assignments from grade school, but I've been loving the haikus you compose in Ghost of Tsushima, so this is some awesome timing. Also really love being able to evoke a thing in so few words. I'm always up for that challenge!
I don't know how many or even if I'll be able to produce anything (yay for the fluctuations in life that are This Fucking Yes), but if you pursue this idea and open it to submissions, I'd love to try to offer something :)
no subject
Date: 2020-08-13 03:31 pm (UTC)I think I'm going to do this thing. I've been feeling so strongly positive about this project that I think I'm actually going to open submissions at the beginning of September. I'm also thinking of limiting the submission window to 45 days (instead of two full months) so that the mailing period doesn't intersect with the holidays - and so that people don't feel as if they have to create some sort of masterpiece.
The fun thing about haiku is that they originated in the Edo period as a drinking game. True fact! Even "bad" (or unconventional) haiku are a perfectly acceptable expression of the form.
Knowing that someone with your set of talents might be interested in submitting something, I think I might also specify that artists and poets should feel free to create their own page layout. The template I've got looks great, but it's also super basic - just one haiku centered in the middle of a square off-white field with no ornamentation or special formatting. I think that sort of simplicity is a good fit for the poetic form, but I know there's a lot of room for creativity and experimentation that I wouldn't want to limit or inhibit.
no subject
Date: 2020-08-20 05:16 pm (UTC)Now I need to think of possible haikus to write up! 💕
no subject
Date: 2020-08-13 06:50 pm (UTC)Also, I don't think I congratulated you when your book came out, so--a belated congratulations!! My ancient (first-generation) iPad and Kindle both recently breathed their last and I haven't had the chance to replace them yet, but once I have an eReader again, it's first on my to-read list. ^_^