thinking a lot about journaling & journaling systems. i’ve been rereading the collected journals of writers i love (susan sontag in particular) and texts on writing by other writers i love (joan didion and bell hooks im looking at you!) and wondering how the simple act of taking pen to paper has become so so complicated. perhaps it’s due to marketing and hyperconsumerism, but journaling has become an activity more about the stationery themselves rather than the act. and i absolutely love stationery, i love my fountain pens and the wonderful experiencing of writing on creamy midori md paper. but i have been so focused on the materials, of perfecting a journaling system with the perfect pens, notebooks, and accessories, rather than the actual action of journaling, of writing to know what i think, paraphrased from didion.
July was established as International Zine Month in 2009! As per usual I've made a poster with 31 prompts for 31 days of IZM. Below is a link to download the poster to print one yourself.
Or if you were going to place and order with @spiralhouseshop or @portlandbuttonworks you can get a free copy here:
Free poster for International Zine Month 2025...
Want an isolated list of the prompts in text? I've put them under the cut:
31 Days of International Zine Month 2025 #IZM2025
1 – Make a 1 page zine! Don’t know what to write about? Make it a zine about why you like zines!
2 – Zine Rewind! Dig out your favorite zines and share them! Remind yourself (and others) why they’re so great.
3 – Look up local or virtual zine event or maybe even dream about starting your own!
4 – AmeriZINE Day! Explore marginalized voices in the Americas. Support zines written by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color)
5 – Free Zines! Post a PDF online or leave copies of your zine in public for other people to enjoy!
6 – Zine Pride! Support zines created by LGBTQIA creators. Don’t know where to start? Check out the Queer Zine Archive Project! (QZAP.org)
7 – International Zines! Explore zines from a country different from your own!
8 – Zine Trade Day! Ask someone to trade zines with you.
9 – New Skill Day! Learn a new zine skill like folding, binding, duplicating, or layout!
10 – Write a review of a movie, album, book or podcast to add to your next zine.
11 – Write a letter or a short note to a zinester you admire.
12 -Zine Wiki Day! Add or update listings to Zine Wiki. Support community powered information at zinewiki.com
13 – Zine Meme! Make a Zine themed meme from an online meme template.
14 – ValenZINES Day! Write a valentine to zines and share why you love them!
15 – Zine Cuisine! Cook from a recipe found in a zine and share the results
16 – Zine Distro Appreciation! Order some zines from a zine distro online and share with people about your favorite zine distros.
17 – Zine Collab! Ask a friend if they would like to collaborate on a zine with you.
18 – From Trash to Treasure! Use recycled or scrap materials to make a zine or embellish one.
19 – Variety is the spice of life! Read zines outside your usual taste—like comics, art zines, how-to guides, or perzines!
20 – Zines of the Future! Explore zines by youth or introduce the youth in your life to zines
21 – Zine Library Day! Find a zine library in your area or check out a digital zine library archive. out or send your zines to a zine library!
22 – How-2 Day! Make a zine about how to do something you are good at doing.
23 – Zine Origin Day! How did you get into zines? What keeps you going?
24 – Slice of Life – Make a zine about events of a single day
25 – Zine Wishlist – Make a list of things you would like to read about in zines, see if anyone has any suggestions for you
26 – Make a clever flyer about your zine to send to your zine friends so they can put them in their orders or distro orders
27 – Lost and Found Day. Dig through old notebooks and finish or revive a zine you never completed.
28 – Zine Playlist! Make a playlist that represents the mood of you zine or share a playlist of what you like to listen to when working on zines
29 – Shelfie Time! Organize your Zine Collection and post a “shelfie”
30 – Take a picture with you and your zine or your favorite zines!
31 – HallowZINE! Remember zines and zinesters that are no longer with us and reflect on how your IZM went this year.
i adore being confronted with the staggering breadth of what individual people can get obsessed with. there's nothing better than having That One Mutual with an advanced degree in ancient greek tragedy who writes minecraft youtube fanfiction to remind you that anyone can love anything
Joan Didion writes, in On Keeping a Notebook, that the purpose of keeping a notebook, or a journal for that matter, isn’t because you simply want keep a personal record of things; but because you want to remember the person you were at that specific moment. we write things down on our notebook/journal/diary (whichever one of those you keep) because we want to remember. we want to remember what specific people meant to us on a particular day or hour. or minute. we want to remember our first impression of something (or of doing that something), possibly of someone, too. sometimes we think we’ll “always remember” important events: “I’ll make a mental note of that” etc etc. but in reality everything is fleeting. so Didion says write it down. keep a journal. that way, people, places, and certain events will always be there in case you ever want to come back to them sometime in the future. but also so that they don’t ever haunt you.
