How not to make things perfectly zine

Published on: August 8, 2025

#posts #zines #creativity

Recently, I've been enjoying making zines. There's something fun about using your hands to make an object, especially when so much of our lives are digital. I've added a few one pagers to my projects page and itch.io.

Here's a quick zine I made against perfection. You can download it as a pdf here. Here is how to fold it (external link). And here's the text:

How not to make things perfectly

All to often when we are creating things we get caught in the trap of making it 'perfect'. We lose hours tinkering with small details when we should move onto something else. Here are some ways to avoid this trap.

1. Have a process.

Find a process that works for your art and limit each stage. For a poem it may be freewrite - shape - sense edit - word edit - done. Once it's gone through those stages, it's done, no more tinkering required.

2. Set a time limit

Tell yourself you are only going to work on this piece for an hour, a day, a week. Whatever the limit, once you hit it, the piece is done. This has the bonus effect of forcing you to focus on it intensely. Got to love artificial deadlines!

3. The 70% rule.

This rule is from Struthless on youtube. If a piece is 70% complete, you're done with it. The effort you put into the last 30% will be a lot of tinkering with small details, when you could be making lots of new, interesting stuff.

Speaking of...

4. Focus on quantity not quality.

If you make lots of things, then each individual item matters less. Instead you focus on the process of making and create a whole body or work. SO make loads and focus on getting them done, not making them perfect.

5. Remove your self worth and have fun!

Too often us artists think everything we make is a deep exploration of our souls, full of meaning. Not everything you make has to have your entire self worth poured into it. In fact, its probably better and healthier if you detach your self worth from your art. So mess around, have fun, try things for the sake of it!

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