It is the third week of Blaugust2024 now. Unlike some folks involved in the event like Blockade85, I have little interest in posting daily. I don’t see this as a ‘competition’ with myself or others. There is nothing to win, and posting daily won’t suddenly make me an object of respect and adoration.
I’ve already exceeded my original goal for being involved in the Blaugust event: to post at least once per week. In fact, I’ve more than doubled my ‘stretch’ goal of posting eight times. So what keeps me coming back to continue writing here?
I have things to say and my own place to say them
I write long-form blog posts here and on my other blog, Geek on a Harley, because I have words in my head that want to be written. I would love it if more people read what I wrote, but I don’t really expect much of an audience any more.
Instead, my blogging is more about expressing the thoughts and documenting the things that don’t fit comfortably in a Facebook feed, on Mastodon, or on Instagram. I like having control over what I write and how it appears even if no one will ever see it. My posts here don’t immediately scroll off into oblivion in a flood of reposts or never appear at all due to the whims of the algorithm.
The commercial social media services have turned into endless streams of memes and ten-words-or-less posts. Heaven forbid that you actually express your own ideas instead of just reposting someone else’s words. And anything you write on those services is purely in aid of the continuously scrolling stream. Trying to find a person’s cohesive history of thought on Facebook or Instagram is largely an exercise in futility.
I’m in the ‘zone’
I haven’t ever really been a frequent or consistent blog creator. My posting in the past has been sporadic at best: months can pass between entries. I might say this is a matter of quality over quantity, but that would be a lie.
But I have found that Blaugust and the associated Discord discussions have kept me active and continuously thinking about the next post. Sometimes I read another blogger’s words and feel compelled to write my own thoughts down. Other times I have planned out posts days in advance triggered by some writing prompt.
I keep feeling incentivized to write the next post: it actually isn’t feeling much like ‘effort’. It is true that keeping up with all the posts from other Blaugust contributors is a challenge, and if I were trying to write a post a day I’d be struggling. But exceeding my own personal goals has been surprisingly easy.
I’m having fun
There are a lot of great posts being written by others as part of Blaugust2024. These other writers are inspiring, supplying me with a steady stream of ideas to ponder on a wide array of topics.
I am also finding a lot of supportive posts and discussions in the event’s Discord channels. There is humour there as well, and insights into how some of the other writers have struggled and overcome obstacles to creating their posts.
To put a fine point on it, I’m finding that I’m having fun blogging for the first time in quite a few years. I’m assigning less importance to the number of views, likes, or comments my posts get, although of course I certainly do appreciate such feedback.
Maybe I can gain something from shouting into the void via my blog that I don’t get elsewhere. And perhaps that is enough to motivate me to continue.
I’d just like to say I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading both your blogs during Blaugust and I’ll be adding them to my blog roll once the event is over. Also I very much appreciate the comments you’ve left on my blog over Blaugust. Comments are the life-blood of blogging – or they can be, when we can jump through the increasingly awkward set of hoops needed to make them. Why every blogging platform keeps making it harder and harder to leave comments mystifies me…
Thank you, Bhagpuss, for your kind words!
As you say- seeing a comment on a post I’ve written on my blog is a kind of ‘fuel’ for me. A comment or even a ‘like’ (a feature currently broken on this blog) makes me feel like the void is a slightly more friendly place, and maybe a bit less void-like.
Re: commenting difficulty. I really like it when I visit a blog and find out that, through whatever magic (probably involving dastardly cookies and some kind of satanic rituals), it ‘knows’ who I am already. I type my comment and hit reply- this is the way it should be.
WordPress seems to have features that facilitate that kind of ‘ease of use’ commenting behaviour as does Blogspot (or at least your blog). Some people seem to not enable or explicitly disable this functionality in their blog’s configuration- I’m not sure why. And there are a lot of the ‘Indieweb’ sites that either can’t or won’t use any kind of social login, or which disable commenting entirely.
Blog commenting authentication is something I should really investigate more: make it as easy as possible for my visitors to have their say.
To me. you are one of the MVPs of Blaugust for your constant presence, your comments AND your posts. I’m glad the even sparked something pleasant for you. I love the contemplative time thinking about writing before I ever sit down at the keyboard to make it happen. I also enjoy finding a post that makes me want to share my own opinions on a topic. I hope to see you participate in other challenges throughout the year.
Thanks, Lou! I’ve enjoyed reading your blogs and commentary as well. I think ‘finding’ and interacting with other bloggers has been the best part of participating in the Blaugust event.
I don’t know about participating in other challenges: I need to see how I feel after a few weeks of going back to ‘normal’. But I will keep my eyes open for opportunities once I’ve had a break. And, barring the unforeseen, I’ll be participating in next year’s Blaugust.
Completely agree about comments and discord discussions as encouraging, motivating, & creating a sense of community.
And I resonated with your “in the zone” phrase. I’ve not been consistently in the zone this month, I’ve struggled with not judging how much I have or haven’t been posting ?… but I’ve been in & out of the zone often enough this month that I’m starting to recognize it, first of all, and also remember how much fun the zone is when I’m there.
Thanks, GaudeteTheology, for the comment!
My definition of “In the zone” for blogging is when I don’t find it to be a struggle to sit down and write something new. That doesn’t mean I didn’t struggle mightily on a couple of specific posts.
But what I did find was that I was able to set aside a couple of ‘blocking’ posts, pick up something else, and get back to writing fairly easily. I’ve never actually tried this before: if I’m stuck on a topic, I stay stuck until I’m done. But the steady flow of ideas from the other event participants made shifting to another topic a no-brainer.
Another thing from the group that helped me was the planning spreadsheet that Lilithesque shared, mostly the ‘month plan’ tab. I don’t think I’d use this level of organization ‘day to day’, but for this event I found it was helpful to keep track of my posts especially with two blogs to keep active.