Making magic with magazines

I just wrapped up a busy two-day creative writing camp with fellow author Kallie George. We decided to go “old school” and have the kids design and mock up their own magazines on paper dummies.

Kallie and I both used to do these sorts of activities when we were kids. We would hand-make and “self-publish” our own magazines and books. There were crudely drawn illustrations, dedications, table of contents, and self indulgent copyright pages (every job in the book publication or “impressum” was assigned to ourselves).

So, we thought we’d nudge the kids away from the pseudo-polish and falsely perceived instant gratification of the Internet and work on something a little more immediately tangible.

Over the two days, students developed a theme, wrote articles, interviews, advice columns, and product reviews, and came up with advertisements and games for the activity pages.

It was so much fun to see the kids embrace their passions and work with their hands. We had magazines on the theme of sports, some on the theme of Harry Potter, another on Greek Gods, and some on magical creatures. We even had a few magazines based on reading and overall creativity.

Some students chose to handwrite and illustrate everything in their magazines, while others typed up their stories then turned the raw text over to me so that I could print them out in columns. This is where my years of graphic design experience came in to use; I was able to quickly mock up templates for comic books, word searches, and masthead designs to allow the students to achieve a bit more structure in their magazines. They would then paste these elements into their magazines and organize illustrations around them.

Here are a few more photos from our hectic workshop . . .

That last image is an advertisement for ketchup and eggs . . . because every student who I mentor knows how much I hate those things! So, inevitably, I am attacked by advertisements promoting them.

Next, my wife Marcie and I are off to Korea to teach a writing camp on Magic, Monsters, and Mystery. And, somehow, amidst all this hubbub, we’ve found time to celebrate the holidays and even do a bit of our own writing.

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