![Shelly & Taylor](http://www.taylorgtower.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Issue-MakeBelieve-Cover-636x310.jpg)
Shelly & Taylor
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I’ve been trying to write a memoir for about six years. When I say trying, I mean I’ve been tossing the idea around in my mind, writing outlines, gathering research, interviewing family members, and fruitlessly trying to combine my existing essays into something of a book-length thing.
I started getting really discouraged and felt like I would forever be spinning my wheels. Then I saw a tutorial on mini-zines from one of my favorite writers-who-draw, Austin Kleon.
He puts little zines in his son’s lunch box every day, which I think is the absolute best thing ever. These posts were incredibly popular and people were asking how to make them so he posted a tutorial from the book Whatcha Mean, What’s a Zine?
I couldn’t believe how quickly the ideas came once I folded my first mini-zine. In my memoir, I wanted to juxtapose the childhoods of myself and my mom but I was getting overwhelmed with the amount of material I had gathered over the years.
Having a six-page mini-zine made it so much easier to select anecdotes to share. I pumped out three issues in no time:
![Issue one of Taylor & Shelly, a mini-zine](http://www.taylorgtower.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Issue-Trees-Cover-819x1024.jpg)
![](http://www.taylorgtower.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Issue-Trees-Pgs1-2-819x1024.jpg)
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![](http://www.taylorgtower.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Issue-FirstMemories-Cover-819x1024.jpg)
![](http://www.taylorgtower.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Issue-FirstMemories-Pgs1-2-e1585428531178-768x1024.jpg)
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![](http://www.taylorgtower.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Issue-FirstMemories-End-e1585428494698-768x1024.jpg)
![](http://www.taylorgtower.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Issue-MakeBelieve-Cover-819x1024.jpg)
![](http://www.taylorgtower.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Issue-MakeBelieve-Pgs1-2-819x1024.jpg)
![](http://www.taylorgtower.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Issue-MakeBelieve-Pgs-3-4-819x1024.jpg)
![](http://www.taylorgtower.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Issue-MakeBelieve-TBC-819x1024.jpg)
![](http://www.taylorgtower.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Issue-MakeBelieve2-Cover-819x1024.jpg)
![](http://www.taylorgtower.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Issue-MakeBelieve2-Pgs1-2-819x1024.jpg)
![](http://www.taylorgtower.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Issue-MakeBelieve2-Pgs3-4-819x1024.jpg)
![](http://www.taylorgtower.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Issue-MakeBelieve2-Pgs5-6-819x1024.jpg)
![](http://www.taylorgtower.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Issue-MakeBelieve2-End-819x1024.jpg)
I have a bunch more ideas and am grateful for this shot of inspiration to reawaken my creativity and remind me why I love telling stories.