Writing Culture with Chuck Morgan. That was by far the most memorable and enjoyable course I took in college. There weren't rules, just writing. As students, we were challenged to write in unique ways: song lyrics, map directions, business plans... I even handed in an entire project (book marks, pamphlets, instructional flip cards) pasted onto a Yoga mat. Presentation is key, right? My favorite project, however, was mastering the art of Zine writing. A zine, not to be confused with a magazine, is a fanzine: a work of self-published writing on a topic of minority interest. An entire world that not one student knew existed was introduced to a class of Rhode Island seniors. What happened then? Well, complete chaos and confusion of course. None of us could grasp what a zine was. "Can I write about my favorite football team?" asked one student, followed by "No" from the professor who further explained zines aren't about trends or every-day topics. (NOTE: Perez Hilton is exactly NOT what a zine is.) It took us almost three weeks of classes to fully understand the mechanics of a zine, at which point I selected the quirks of my college roommates as the muse to my zine. My roommates were notorious for leaving me insanely inappropriate sticky notes and letters that I would find in all sorts of places: my school binder, my computer screen, the bathroom mirror, my pillow case. I took it upon myself to save every last note, spy on them in secrecy and copy their wall-to-wall messages on Facebook. I compiled their notes and most intimate secrets into a black and white, photocopied archive of embarrassment. I later sat them down, explained my project and told them I had already handed it in to my professor. Were they mortified? Of course but I got an "A" for my originality.
Like a zine, a blog needs to have a personality, a topic of interest, a reason to write and keep writing. A blog needs a brand. It's a home of consistent ideas for readers alike to indulge in new and relevant knowledge each time they visit.
What's my blog about? Well I haven't figured that out yet. It took me weeks to figure out that what interested me the most was the crazies I was living with... so I'm just going to keep writing and see what I come up with.
Peace.
