Blaugust 2019 Postmortem

Blaugust is over, which always brings me bittersweet feelings. August 2019 was a much better month for me than August 2018 was, which I am grateful for. As difficult as it became to write 31 posts, I somehow managed it. Though that’s thanks to finally checking off a to-do list item and moving all of my old articles from QueueTimes and MMO Games to my blog.

Last year’s insights after Blaugust concluded:

• Blogging every day is a valiant goal, but is not something I can manage full-time.
• On the days I journaled in my bujo (bullet journal), I was less likely to post a blog post.
• I have good intentions of mini-events, but can have a difficult time implementing them.
• When life gets overwhelming, my content creation endeavors take a nose-dive.

I don’t know that I learned much more about myself that is different than what I learned last year, so this year’s insights are similar.

• Blogging every day is a valiant goal, but is not something I can manage full-time. Once again, I already knew this, but it’s nice to have a reminder that blogging/writing is not something I can commit to full-time, especially when I’m working what boils down to three jobs (actual full-time day job that pays the bills, NSFW job which is starting to help pay the bills, and streaming on Twitch). I am planning to try to go back to my goal of posting once a week (or more if inspiration strikes, but at least once a week).
• On the days I blogged, I was less likely to journal in my bujo (bullet journal). Which I’m not trying to put a value statement on. I use journaling in my bujo as a way to prepare myself for difficult conversations, or work out my feelings, or discuss thoughts for/about therapy sessions. In a way, I feel that I somehow stunted my personal growth for the sake of hitting a thirty one day goal.
• When life gets overwhelming, my content creation endeavors take a nose-dive. This more came out in my streaming endeavors this past month rather than my blogging (albeit only because of all the posts I copied over), but it still holds true. Day job stress makes it extremely difficult to complete things I actually want to do. (And triggers some intense negative feelings, but that’s why I’m working on coming up with some alternatives to the day job.)
• I miss creating content that is more in-depth rather than more personalized. Copying over all of my longer form writings from working freelance has made me realize that I miss writing like that. While I enjoy having my blog as a more personalized endeavor, I also miss writing in a slightly more removed and analytical style (as many of the bloggers in Blaugust also seem to do, whether on occasion or consistently). Maybe I’ll look at doing a more in-depth or thought-out post once a month on top of my weekly personalized posts.
• Numbers seem to be more of a distraction than a help. Throughout the month in the Blaugust Discord, some folks mentioned their blog follower counts, clicks, and views. While I understand that the numbers and the resulting milestones can be important to continuing blogging, I’ve come to the conclusion that for me, they do more harm than good. While I appreciate each and every person who spends time on my blog, clicks through, and follows, focusing on those numbers makes me compare myself to others more frequently. “Why am I not getting the same numbers?” is a common thought. And in the end, it really comes down to, (1) am I enjoying what I’m doing for myself, and (2) do I reach people who are invested. And if that happens to be only 3 people compared to someone else’s 30, in the end I suppose that’s good enough for me.

Okay, so maybe I learned a bit more than I initially thought I did. I loved seeing a bunch of new folks start blogging, and others pick up blogging again. I’m looking forward to continuing with catching up on blog posts, and getting to a point where I spend a little time every day reading everyone’s blogs (hopefully not every one of us is going to continue at a pace of a post a day or else I’ll never catch up!). I’m excited to have a backlog of post ideas, again. Though some of them might need to be posted sooner than later so I’m not referencing a six-month old post by another blogger by the time I get to my own post.

I also, like last year, want to give a huge shout out to Bel for all the time and energy he’s put into this endeavor. You are an amazing person who works wonders. Thank you for being you, and doing all that you do.

Lastly, I want to give a (somewhat shameless) plug to another blogging event in the hopes that folks stay blogging through then, and decide to participate. Since 2015, I’ve been running an event called IntPiPoMo. IntPiPoMo, or International Picture Posting Month is the image equivalent of National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo). NaNoWriMo focuses on writing 50,000 words over the course of the month of November. So, if a picture is a thousand words, that means that IntPiPoMo requires fifty pictures.

I’m looking forward to keeping up with everyone, and hopefully being a little bit more active in Discord over time. Thank you for all the fun ideas, all! Keep up the writing and the fun!