So anyway, I'm doing this. First, I've been looking over my sections and I'm feeling much magazine and little literary, so I decided to cut out the news section. Yes, I know, terrible loss, but when I first decided to mix things up a bit I was still hoping to hold the artsy feeling of a lit mag, and I personally feel like I'm killing the artsy feel slowly. That's bye, bye, news. Second, I got my TOC (that's table of contents, I'm gonna write it like this from now on because it's easier) written down.
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| I'm proud of myself |
Third, let me explain some things about the TOC.
- The prose and poetry pieces are ones that I wrote -expect for three, who I borrowed from my friend- and am using the title to create the table of contents.
- I decided to use my teacher's idea, Mrs. Stoklosa, to have the Op-Ed be about the digitization of literature -a.k.a. E-books. I think that's a very wide topic and it has become huge in the literary world -New York Time's best selling list even has a section for E-books-, so it'd be great to explore it. I'm thinking of two contrasting op-eds, one of someone who's pro the digitization, and one of someone who's against.
- The review (which can be noted, I change to review/interview because that way it can vary) was inspired on an Op-Ed I read last year, on New York Times. It was Stephen King talking about how productive a novelist can be, and I think he has a good point. But because King himself is a VERY productive novelist, I thought of having a review on his newest book Finders Keepers embedded on an interview with King about his productivity.
- I've established that my target audience is adults, but I'd love to create an appealing magazine for young adults to read also, so I've decided that the comedy section will appeal to this younger audience. I got the inspiration when, while I wondered through Twitter this afternoon, I saw many tweets on Hannah Montana's 10 year birthday. So I thought: this audience is made of people in my age group, and my age group grew up watching, among other stations, Disney Channel. One thing that we are, COLLECTIVELY, always complaining about is how different Disney Channel is right now -and yes, maybe it is because we have grown and matured, but the shows are also worse, because we haven't grown and matured that much. Plus, many adults did watch at least a little bit of Disney Channel if they have kids. (Kind of an universal theme). And in the case of Hannah Montana, everyone knows who Miley Cyrus is and that before she became a short-haired promiscuous figure, she was a sweet, innocent girl playing Ms. Montana. There is also the fact that so many Disney artists grew to take a place in pop-culture. A lot to explore withing this subject, and definitely many jokes to be made.
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| 1966 table of contents |
But moving on from the theoretical part (although it is my favorite, because the practical part involves my perfectionist self going CRAZY), I'm thinking of the design right now. I have been looking into some literary magazines, and what I noticed is that most of them have a really clean look. (By the way, I have found this website called issuu that has tons of free magazines as digital versions). Much like the rest of the magazine, the table of contents presents a clear, simple background, is very organized, but still gives out the "feel" of the magazine.
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| 580 Split table of contents |
1966- Every edition presents the TOC the same way, including the title -but of course, changes the name of the pieces-, which creates a brand for the magazine.
580 Split- I love how everything is very organized and neatly divided, and the lines sort of create a path. The doted lines are repeated throughout the whole magazine, and orange is the color of the issue.
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| Elysium table of contents -a.k.a. the literary magazine from the high school that always beats my high school's lit mag on competitions. |
Elysium- it is not AS clean as the two other ones I presented, but it still is. The background gives a different look to the pages, but it doesn't distract the reader's eyes from the actual content. But like the two previous magazines, the background is a technique used throughout the magazine -a creative choice. But I really like how the pastel colors match and give a calming look to the TOC.
Yes, I want to follow this clean pattern, mostly because the focus should be on the art more than anything else. I don't want distraction from the so carefully chosen words of the hypothetical writers that wish to share their souls with the world -that's something that should be respected and appreciated. I will be working with InDesign and Photoshop to create my magazine, and I should be starting the table of contents as soon as I finish this post. I'll be posting about my progress or creative blocks, don't worry. But until then, that's it.
King, Stephen. "Stephen King: Can a Novelist Be Too Productive?" The New York Times. The New York Times, 27 Aug. 2015. Web. 24 Mar. 2016 <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/31/opinion/stephen-king-can-a-novelist-be-too-productive.html>.
"Enjoy the Largest Collection of Free-to-read Publications from Incredible Publishers around the Globe." Digital Publishing Platform for Magazines, Catalogs, and More. Web. 24 Mar. 2016. <https://issuu.com/>.
"English Graduate School | 580 Split Literary Journal | Mills College." English Graduate School | 580 Split Literary Journal | Mills College. Web. 24 Mar. 2016. <http://www.mills.edu/academics/graduate/eng/about/580_split.php>.
"Elysium Literary and Arts Magazine 2015." Issuu. Web. 24 Mar. 2016. <https://issuu.com/elysiummagazine310/docs/elysium_magazine_2015>.
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