Scrittorio Diaries: Creating a Digital Magazine

At the end of this month, the inaugural issue of Scrittorio, my digital magazine on the craft of fiction writing, will be released. It's currently still in the works, but I am confident in my ability to get it ready to go for a release either on October 30 or October 31. 

It's extremely exciting to see the magazine start to take form in the way that you imagined it!

When I first started brainstorming for this project, I thought that the inaugural issue was going to be the perfect "sample" or "template" for readers and potential contributors, letting them see what the magazine is all about, and what kind of content is sought. At the time, I thought I could get the first issue out by end of summer. 

Then I decided to postpone it to a Fall release, and by doing so found myself with 3 extra months to work with - so I thought, Why not put out a Submissions Open notice and get contributors for the first issue? I wasn't expecting very many at first - maybe one or two contributors. And that was just fine by me.

However, despite explaining what my magazine was looking for in terms of content, and what could be found in it, I was still seeing some misunderstanding surrounding Scrittorio. It isn't a literary magazine, but will happily feature an excellent short story every now and then. It isn't a literature magazine, but we'll talk about books from time to time. And I fear I may have made it sound all too formal at the start, when it's really just a woman and her keyboard trying to put together what is essentially an e-zine of sorts for the writing community online. 

So, back to the original idea. The inaugural issue will be a kind of "template" or "sample" of what to expect - and all of the content will be created by yours truly.

This decision allowed me to really put together the segments that I wanted to have in the magazine, along with trying out a few other segments that may or may not stick. In particular, the first issue features: 

Articles. There are 2-4 articles that will be featured in the first issue of Scrittorio (depending on time constraints). Articles will generally touch upon all dimensions of the craft of writing fiction. 

The articles have a very simple layout and design, but each of them will delve into topics of interest for writers of fiction, so keep an eye out for the table of contents on release day!

 

In the Margins. This segment is one where a short story, excerpt, or chapter is analyzed for the techniques used by the writer, in hopes that we can learn actionable methods of creating the desired effects in our writing. 

In the Margins segment: where a short piece is analyzed from a technical perspective so we can learn from the author's use of technique.

Writer's Workshop. This segment is where a short writing lesson is provided, complete with exercises, examples, prompts, or whatever else may be called for in the teaching of the fiction-writing technique that is featured. 

The Writer's Workshop segment will not only have small writing lessons, but resources such as worksheets and templates to help writers put these lessons into practice.

 

Wellness Checkpoint. Any writer will tell you that mental well-being is important to a successful writing experience. This segment offers advice and motivation for writers on a mental/emotional level.  

Look to the Future: A segment where upcoming writing events and challenges are featured. For example, the Fall issue will list the writing challenges and events that are taking place in the Winter season (Nov-Jan). 

A Scrittorio issue can have up to 2 pieces for each segment (except for the articles, of which there will probably be a maximum of 6 per issue, and a minimum of 2).

 

Notes on Creating a Digital Magazine

One of the great things about working on a digital magazine is that I get to use hyperlinks, much like most news websites or blogs do, to link readers to more information about particular topics, or sources for specific pieces of information. It also allows me to link to contributors' websites, blogs, social media, books, etc. 

But there are a few tricky elements to working on a digital magazine. One of these is the sizing of the magazine pages, because a digital magazine will be read on electronic devices such as laptops, tablets, and phones - each of which have different screen sizes and resolutions. I chose a page size and font size that will hopefully be easy to read across all devices, but I have also seriously considered releasing a separate PDF for each issue that would be portrait-oriented for mobile viewing. 

I hope readers will let me know how comfortable the design choices that were made are to their reading experience. 

Apart from that, the main challenge that I have found myself facing has been the interior design of the magazine. I've opted for simplicity, in hopes that that will make the design look professional and unified. The design of the In the Margins segment in particular has been a bit tricky - I feel that that may change slightly in future issues as I find something that presents the segment better.

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I'm excited to share the inaugural issue of Scrittorio with everyone! It'll be posted on the Scrittorio website, and is 100% free to download and read, which will be the case for all issues of Scrittorio moving forward. 

Please keep in mind that Scrittorio is a volunteer effort, and that everything I do, I do during my free time. Things move a bit slower than I would like, but it is a one-woman show, so I feel that's to be expected. If you have any Qs, please don't hesitate to leave them in the comments below or get in touch!

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