This post is part of a larger series on how I designed my photography zine, in somewhat agonizing detail. Take a look at the other posts in this series:

• Part I of VI: Forming the Project
• Part II of VI: Early Design Concepts
• Part III of VI: The Design Dirty Work
• Part IV of VI: Editing the Zine
• Part V of VI: Producing the Zine
• Part VI of VI: How to Photograph a Laundromat & Other Thoughts

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How did editing work?

In truth, editing started as soon as I printed out a [very] rough draft of my zine for the first time. Print testing and editing coexisted with one another since seeing a physical copy of my zine made it impossible to ignore errors and things I wanted to change.

I carried each rough draft of my zine around with me, pulling it out during slow moments to flip through. When I saw items to change, I took notes directly on the pages, and incorporated the changes into subsequent test prints.

Though this process lacked efficiency, it helped me work towards the final zine I wanted to create.

Text Editing

The text I planned to include in my zine made me the most nervous. I wanted to avoid sounding too wordy or missing any typos, which are both tendencies of mine. Of course, I employed regular editing tactics: I wrote multiple drafts; I read over it; I set it down and came back to it with fresh eyes; and I read it aloud to myself.

The biggest piece of mind came when I e-mailed the text to a friend to look over. She sent it back to me a few days later; and although I had reviewed the text so many times, she found some typos and identified an area that needed rewording. I’m glad I asked for that help.

Roughly a Final Draft

After several weeks of reviewing my zine, I felt happy with the version I had. Ahead of a long weekend trip to Victoria, BC, I made one final draft. I took extra care with this copy, ensuring my printer settings, materials, and binding method were as close to a final draft as I could manage.

I also took time to take notes and outline the all the steps to produce my rough draft so I would have a reference to follow later on.

This final draft went on vacation with me. Whenever I had a sat down for a few minutes at a bar or a coffee shop, I pulled out my draft and spent time looking at it. I made a couple more notes of things to change, but I was finally happy with what I had created.