With Blaugust 2023 at the day 31 finish line, what are some lessons I've learned? What might I have done differently? And would I do it again? Fair questions. What follows might be more coffee talking than wisdom. I'll take either one.

Go for it

A saying you've likely heard before seems true: if you stick your mind to it, you can do it (barring unforeseen circumstances in a universe you don’t ultimately control). If the Lord wills… At the start of August, I simply chose to dive in and give it a try, thinking I didn't have anything to lose. I figured I'd just see how far I could go, how long a streak I might pull off. I made it farther than I expected!

Time challenge

Daily blogging is a hefty commitment schedule that should not be taken lightly. It takes persistent dedicated effort. Churning out a 31-post streak amidst life’s normal routine leaves very little time for much else. Along the way, I became (pleasantly) sidetracked by hand-coding a brand new website on Neocities. It's fun, but combining that with Blaugust has made this month a full mental load.

All that left little time to play TotK. I've picked up the pace in the game lately and have had a blast. But I played far less TotK overall this month than I anticipated. Part of my reason for joining Blaugust was thinking it'd help me focus more on my game time. But that didn't pan out so much.

Busy blogosphere

Another lesson to note: while I tried to interact with many other Blaugust 2023 blogs and authors, I simply lacked enough time and mental energy to pursue that. Keeping up with the Discord channels, visiting blogs, commenting, and tracking folks on Mastodon was a lot. It was like juggling too many flaming daggers. Some I dropped.

Planner or Pantser

As when writing a novel, there are two basic ways to author blog posts: you can be a planner or a pantser. I normally think of myself as a planner, but I was mostly a pantser for Blaugust. I kind of got lucky and just thought each day what I might blog, then I set myself to writing. Somehow it worked.

So I learned that you can't overthink it. If you're going to do it, rather than figuring out how you're going to do it, you just tell yourself "You will" and "I can" or "I must." I found myself constrained to the task with little time to spare, so I didn't waste time with wondering, "OK, how am I gonna pull this off?" I just did it. I guess you can say I figured it out as I went along (flying by the seat of my pants).

On a related note, I found that once I got blogging momentum in the first week, the inertia helped keep me going all month. My brain was primed and focused.

Stat boom

Another thing clear to me: when you get busy blogging many posts, and several others are doing likewise while also visiting many blogs, your stats might see a huge increase. Mine did! I don't really obsess over stats, but it's been kind of fun to see them rise dramatically.

Going forward

Will I do Blaugust again next year? Well, I'm at the end of a month-long blog marathon with a weary brain; now isn't the best time to ask. That said, my answer is the same as it was on July 31st this year: no, I don't think so. But you never know.

For September, my normal blog schedule will resume, dropping back to about a post or two per week. I need rest. And I hope my readers haven't felt like they've been spammed with daily long-form posts plus short asides here and there. Y'all may need a break too. (Quality over quantity...)

I'm happy to have stepped up to the challenge and, though fatigued, I'm surprised and glad to have completed the task. Mission accomplished. The job is done. Is it well done? I think well-enough.