Blaugust 2024 was my very first blogging event of any kind. As August comes to an end so too does the Blaugust festival, and the topic of this final week is ‘Lessons Learned’. I obviously learned a lot since I’m a complete neophyte to such events.
I suppose that the most obvious thing I learned from Blaugust was that participating in such an event can be fun! But what else did I learn in the process? A bit of introspection is in order…
Don’t over-think it
It is very easy for me to start writing a post and turn it into a detailed essay. And early in Blaugust 2024 I planned out several posts that I knew were going to be hard to write, with a lot of detail that I’d have to assemble.
The most obvious problem with such thought-heavy posts is that they take a long time to write, sometimes several days. But these types of posts are also exhausting for me to write, and I struggle to start a new post after they are done as a result.
What I found during Blaugust was that writing something quick and simple was not a ‘bad’ thing. It could, in fact, be better than one of my more detailed essays. And I discovered that writing an easy to write post after finishing something more complicated was often refreshing.
Reply posts are awesome
Blogging in isolation can sometimes be a struggle. But taking inspiration from another blogger can make the process much more enjoyable. I found that many of the posts written by others during Blaugust 2024 activated my creative juices.
I wrote about AI partially in response to discussions in the Blaugust Discord channels; my post on thankfulness came in response to another blogger’s gratitude post; and an accounting of my gaming devices over the years was inspired by similar posts by several other bloggers. These are just a few examples from Blaugust of how writing in response to another’s post inspired me.
The best part is the community
The ideas, support, and humour shared in the Blaugust Discord channels was something I had not anticipated when I joined the event. People shared their struggles with writing, talked about why they blog, or helped each other with technical problems throughout the month.
Each of my days started with reading the posts written by other event participants and checking up on how everyone was doing via Discord. It was inspiring to see such different people with diverse ideas and motivations coming together on what really felt like a single project. I wasn’t writing in isolation, and that made a tremendous difference.
Posting frequently is manageable
My primary reason initially for joining the Blaugust 2024 event was to motivate myself to post to my blog more often. That bar was pretty low: over the years my average number of posts per month rarely exceeded one (1). I posted a lot more than once during August: I’ll talk about my stats in a later post this week.
But my success was not as great a struggle as I thought it was going to be. I found that the things I learned during the month from the community of participants made regular posting not just ‘possible’, but almost easy.
I don’t think I’ll sustain my Blaugust-level of productivity, but I think it is quite practical for me to post once or twice a week. I expect my main challenge after the event ends will be creating regular writing habits. But I now know that actually writing frequently isn’t as hard as I had told myself it would be.
It’s easier for me to blog every day than it ever was to write a daily private journal. Somehow writing for an audience is more motivating. I’ve enjoyed your posts over the past four weeks, and I look forward to more. Thanks so much for all the comments and feedback you’ve offered!
It is interesting that you say blogging is easier than journalling: I’m planning on getting back into some kind of daily ‘self care’ journalling, but have not had much luck with keeping that kind of thing going in the past. We’ll see how much my experience matches yours!
I’ll definitely be bothering your blogs on a regular basis- and I definitely appreciate our interaction, Lou!
Blogging is like having my own corner on the Internet where I can be myself and the community when you find your niche is very supportive.
Agreed, Emily! The challenge is making my little corner appealing enough so that people come back now and then.
And that means writing more often than, say, twice a year 😉
Ultimately, we all find a writing schedule that we can sustain. I think one of the great benefits of Blaugust is it is a voyage of self discovery. You determine over the month what works for you and what doesn’t. What you can do comfortably and what plays to your strengths. I think the community is the best part. Furthermore, it there all year round.
I have enjoyed reading your posts of late, as they cover such a spectrum of content.