Perfectionism Symptoms

Yes, I am a perfectionist. I love things neat and organized, what can I do. It makes me very happy, so I do it. Here's one of my perfectionism symptoms:

I created a google doc where I can organize "the system". For now, this is what I have, and I can picture an entire magazine with those. I'm following my ideas of adding more to the lit mag concept, which I explained in a previous post, and I'm developing the "how that would be accomplished". As it can be noticed, the parts that I've added don't make up too much of the magazine, as they are limited to two-page spreads or two pieces. My next step is start working on what each section will have for the edition I'm creating.

Also, I'm figuring out a schedule for myself. I'm on spring break right now, and telling myself that I'll be working tirelessly on this project is not realistic, so I decided to set apart some hours of my week for that. I want to visit Barnes & Noble to look at some literary magazines, be inspired. I'll set some hours apart to work on the table of contents -the WHOLE thing, even design. I'll set two hours apart to decide what my two-page spread and cover will be -I want this done so I can start designing both when I come back from spring break.

That is pretty much it. I'm happy I've got my mind wrapped around this.

Snapshots

Recently, during my creative writing class, I came across a very interesting piece. It was about this girl and a spider, basically describing the spider walking on her skin. While I was reading it, all I could think was "THIS IS REALLY COOL!", but toward the end I read the word "snapshot" and suddenly a light shone in my mind. What if I had a whole section in my magazine dedicated to snapshots? Oh, yes! So I did some thinking, because I needed to come up with a feasible way to make this happen. The best option I could come up with was: the hypothetical photographers would got out in the beautiful, wild world to take many pictures; then these photographs would be presented to a set of hypothetical writers, who would each choose one that inspires him/her and write something -yes, anything, that's the beauty of it. (In my mind I have a full working magazine on a tall, fancy building in New York City). The purpose is to keep it simple, but also meaningful, and to create a connection between the photograph and the piece; it's a way of having something unique and nice for readers to consume quickly.

The Guardian does something like that, but they only have the pictures, and they are all related to politics and world issues (1867 stays away from all that) -they call it "Twenty photographs of the week". That's how I got the idea of having my hypothetical photographers going out in the world to take pictures -to get snapshots of the moment, the right now, the current events. So I went there and looked around last week's pearls, and decided to create and example of how this would kinda go (keep in mind that on the real hypothetical magazine my hypothetical writers would have other hypothetical staff to read their pieces and perfect it; this was all me, myself, and I).

Picture I stole from The Guardian. Thanks, guys!

Black is for the emptiness. For that space in my closet that used to be yours. For that shelf on the bathroom that held your toothbrush and deodorant. For the void beside me on our bed that permeates eternal coldness and shivers and cries. For the spot in my heart that used to have your name written, now scratched by your hateful actions.

Purple is for all the marks. For all the bruises and scars that you left on me. For all the lessons you taught me on how to never let myself be treated again. For all your insane words that cut my skin and made me bleed and changed me for life. For all the purple bags underneath my watered eyes after a night pondering why you piously let me believe your lies.

Blue is for me, blue. For all the sadness you put me through. For all the wasted time I had to oblige my heart to consent with, while my blood got colder and colder each time you touched me. For all the nights my eyes grew the size of an apple, my tears were so abundant that they became scarce, and each sob threw a piece of my soul out of my body.

Green is for hope. Hope I carry above all others. Hope that guides me through this road and keeps me from hurting my toes with rocks or glass or dirt. Hope that wakes me up every morning after you left my body. Hope that whispers in my ear that today is just another day, tomorrow will be a better day, and the day after will be even better. Hope that keeps my head high looking for places to find happiness, since it’s been hard to find it within. Hope that shines in the distance, green, easy on the eyes, bright and beautiful, that speaks to me, yells that I can reach if I just keep pushing and pushing, because it is not far and it is not just in my mind.

My first demonstration of fiction writing skills in the blog, I hope you enjoy it!

Anyway, I'm saying, or better yet, writing all this because this might be my two-page spread. Yes, I know I said I was going to create "the system" before starting anything, but you can't program epiphanies. Epiphanies just happen. And they are so rare that when they do happen, you gotta make use of them right away. I couldn't let this one go because I very much like it, and I'd love to just go out in the wild, broad world taking pictures to inspire me to write.

"Twenty Photographs of the Week | Art and Design | The Guardian." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. Web. 19 Mar. 2016. <http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/series/twenty-photographs-of-the-week>. 

Powell, Jim. "The 20 Photographs of the Week." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 2016. Web. 19 Mar. 2016. <http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2016/mar/12/the-20-photographs-of-the-week#img-11>. 

It's Lit

I think, I'm not completely, positively sure, but I think that I have the concept of my magazine pretty much done in my mind. I spent this week thinking about what I want to include and what I can add without taking too much off the "lit mag vibe", and I believe I have come up with a nice idea. I am reinventing the literary magazine! (Yes, I know I'm not reinventing it for the whole world -NOT YET- but it's a good way to start). I want to do that because I think it gives me more space to have creative freedom and it is a way for me to create something entirely new. Besides, I think it will be more of a challenge, for me, to successfully portray the concept of this magazine I have in mind than simply creating a lit journal. Plus, it gives me a wider target audience, which is always nice and always welcome.
So here is what my mind has been working on for this past week: I will have a mix between a lit mag and a reg mag (that's a normal magazine, if you didn't get it). How? With five very simple steps:

1- I will maintain the prose, poetry, and art, obviously.
2- But I'll add more! What more? Op-eds, reviews and critiques, and news about the literary/art world.
3- The op-eds will be mostly of themes related to the magazine -literature, art, media, no politics, economics, and sports.
4- The reviews and critiques will be of books, expos, galleries, authors, artists, among others of the same field.
5- And finally, the news will be limited to a two-page spread with bright, insightful, captivating images, and terse descriptions.

With these ideas I'm in great shape to start designing my magazine. Right now, I'm not as concerned with creating my pages as I am with figuring out the sections of the mag -I want to have a clear "system" for 1867 before I start creating anything, so it hypothetically flows as smoothly as possible, and I can be sure the cover, table of contents, and two-page spread aren't out of context or weak. I'll end up creating the table of contents first -partially because I have no idea what to do for my cover and two-page spread yet, but mostly because it follows my thought process of "the system".

This post is nice and sweet, but now I'm getting to my real intentions behind it. I am trying to figure out my target audience. The usual audience for lit mags are people who SPECIFICALLY enjoy them, and therefore have a subscription or simply buy. Literary magazines usually publish twice or four times a year -the ones that deviate from this pattern are very rare-, mostly because they require contribution from random people with random moods that randomly write -writers. They don't have an established staff to write all the pieces because that's not what they are about -they are about presenting many different artists to the world. I wish to keep that, but also have the idea of a staff to write the op-eds, reviews, and news. Balance. This way I can add expand my target audience. I'll go from "first and foremost about writers" to "first and foremost about writers and readers", and by doing that I'll be reaching to an adult, middle to upper class, appreciative of art audience beyond the usual writers and publishers. For me, that is very important as it is a way to smash underdog, bohemian literature in more people's face. I'll be giving an even better opportunity to unknown but talented writers that are abundant in this highly commercialized, standardized, snobbish world of ours.

I think I've found my beautiful cause. Lit.

"Council of Literary Magazines and Presses." Council of Literary Magazines and Presses. Web. 18 Mar. 2016. <https://www.clmp.org/indie_publishing/indi_litpubl.html>. 

"Literary Magazines." And Journals Database| Poets & Writers. Web. 18 Mar. 2016. <http://www.pw.org/literary_magazines>.