I made a tiny zine to remember how to write
What zines, facilitation and documentary taught me about creative blocks
A few years back, when life had been almost completely upended by the pandemic, I needed to find a new way to write.
Writing had become difficult for several reasons, not least chronic fatigue, which was a real kicker. To help me write, I taught myself some new tricks, all of them to do with time.
My time-based writing really helped me. I even used them to write the first draft of a novel, and most of a book of poetry. But most importantly of all, they got me writing and kept me going on the difficult days.
Eventually, I realised that I had enough to teach other people my methods, and my first ten-week course for the Poetry School was born. Inspired by poems by James Schuyler and my friend Cat Woodward, I called it Hymns to Life: Poetry, Documentary, Time.
Soon after the course finished and I’d said goodbye to my wonderful students, I entered another phase of my writing life. I’m still in it, and it’s fair to say it’s been a bit of a drought. I’ve been blocked until very recently.
Three things have started to shift the dial.
The first is taking a workshop as a punter rather than a tutor. Nothing unusual about that — I love a good workshop, and try and do a couple every year. This one is special though, in that it’s the perfect workshop at the perfect time. It’s run by writer and coach Stevie Mackenzie-Smith, and is called Living Material. I won’t go into too much detail as it’s Stevie’s course to teach, but it’s all about lowering the barriers to writing and gathering material from everyday life, rather than waiting for divine inspiration to strike. It’s exactly what I need right now and the methods Stevie is teaching really compliment my documentary writing methods, so it’s been great to start going back to those as well.
The second is a workshop that I produced for my culture development role the other day, facilitated by artist and researcher Holly Sandiford. In the morning session, Holly had prepared some zines for the group to fold and fill in. In fact the entire project we’ve been working on has used collage, sound walks, and other creative techniques throughout, and I’ve absolutely loved the way these methods open up different ways to think, even when you’re considering more serious topics like policy frameworks. But there was something about the simple folded zine that took me back ten years to when I was deeply into bookbinding, writing my first books, being part of a community of young writers at poetry nights…
So today I folded and wrote my own little zine, about my documentary poetry methods. It’s simple, black handwriting on cream paper, a grand total of six pages and a cover, using this method of folding with one cut. Not my most visually stunning work (I was a visual and textile artist once…) but it felt brilliant to do it. Right now, scrappy creativity is fine by me. I want to do more zines!
And finally, inspiration to share my zine comes from facilitator Leah Lockhart’s Substack, where I love learning new facilitation ideas. Leah generously shares her zines on there, and they’re full of ideas for reflective practice. So I’m doing the same here.
It’s testament to how different threads connect over time (there’s that word again), and also to the importance of ‘filling the well’. My creative practice might not be flowing easily right now, but taking a workshop, playing with creative methods, and returning to old enthusiasms are all helping to keep me going.
So here’s my tiny zine. Download it, fold it and try out the four methods for documentary writing inside it. Let me know how you find these methods and if you would like to read more about documentary writing based on my research and practice. There’s plenty more where this came from… And in the meantime, you can find the reading list from my Hymns to Life course on my Bookshop.org page →
All best till next time,
Flo