Blaugust

Blaugust Reborn – It Has Begun

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BlaugustRebornLogo2018Today officially kicks off day 1 of Blaugust Reborn my friends!

I hope you all have plenty of snacks and coffee, or whatever drink of choice you enjoy while writing as this month is going to be amazing!  It’s going to require some focus and brain power for sure….hence the snacks and drinks.

Today we are jumping in and discussing writing prompts as one of the hardest things about blogging is that some days are mentally tough, and you’ll have writers block.  It happens to the best of us and it’s just part of the journey us writers are part of.  Checkout a write up I did years ago about Writers Block and some easy tips of how to break through.

Sometimes the opposite can happen though and you have so many ideas and topics spawning in your head that you don’t know what to do with them.  Think of it like a water dam that is partially open and only letting a small portion of the water come through.  My best advice for situations like this is have a journal or some place like a back log of topics and ideas you jot down.  This will definitely help with those thought clogs and ease up some moments of frustration when those fingers don’t know what to type.

Let’s jump into those writing prompts as blogging for 31 days in a row is a challenge no matter how long you’ve been writing.  I’m hoping these prompts will help you with ideas through the month, and maybe even break some writers block you might have or experience along the way.

Here Are Nine Random Writing Prompts

  • Write about your favorite coffee you drink while writing!
  • Write about a friendship that was made from gaming and some of your favorite memories.
  • Write about a favorite book series and a character within that book series you enjoy.
  • Write about your favorite nostalgic video game and what you most enjoyed about it.
  • Share about a passion you have outside of gaming or reading / writing.  Maybe it’s cooking, or wood working, or whatever you like.  It can be whatever you are crazy passionate about.
  • Write about your favorite movies regardless of genre and what specifically about the films you enjoyed.
  • Write about why you enjoy writing.  Why are you so passionate about it and what would you say to someone new getting into writing?  More for the veteran blogger/writer but can be a fun journey to explore no matter your experience.
  • Write about the lore of a favorite video game, or book series you are passionate about.  If you are like me, then lore is your thing and you love to research and write about it.
  • Write about upcoming technology in the gaming industry, film industry, or whatever nerdy industry you enjoy.

I hope these prompts will help you get started and open up those creative sparks for this blogging journey.  Personally I have a ton of material planned out and jotted down in my journal so I don’t have to feel crunched for time.  Take the time to prep for the month and get ahead of things best you can so you don’t feel overwhelmed by trying to post every day.  It can be a daunting task, but also an amazing challenge to push yourself in an event like this.  Don’t forget to have fun while doing this challenge, and shamelessly look through all the writing prompts the events mentors are posting as you don’t have to re-create a brand new wheel every time you want to post something.  Those writing prompts are there to help us all spawn new ideas and make this journey a bit easier.

Jump in, enjoy, challenge yourself and most of all have fun!

Should I Blog & How Often Do I Post?!?

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WHOA Blogosphere, it’s the day before BLAUGUST!!!!  Who’s excited for tomorrow?  The pre-show has been amazing to see as the event hasn’t even started yet and everyone is booming ideas, posting some crazy cool stuff, and brainstorming like mad!

Here is to a PHENOMENAL month of creativity, connecting with new friends and blowing the doors off the interwebs with great content.

So….as we come down to the final hours of prep week, here is my small contribution going into the event.  It’s all about scheduling, should I blog, and how often do I post….which are all major questions for anyone who has ever stepped foot into the arena of blogging has had flash through their brain before!

Do you have an insanely busy schedule but love to write and throw those thoughts on a blog?  This post is going to break down four simple steps I’ve used for years which have helped me stay organized “CHAOS” and allowed me to do what I enjoy….WRITE!  For years I struggled to find time to write and get anything past a draft status at most.  Why you might ask….well I’m a family man and as much as I love writing, I love my family more!

I’m a husband, and father to ten year old triplets….yes TRIPLETS 🙂  I have two boys and a girl who stole my heart the moment I got to see them.  Ten years ago I had to figure out how to prioritize life, my writing, and “Adult” all those things that were needed from me as a husband and father as well.  Writing being one of my biggest passions I had to put a system in place that allowed me time for all of what life was calling, and time is the one thing we don’t get more of.  24 hours in a day and it’s so easy to fill all those time slots up if we aren’t careful.  OK, enough about me and more about these four steps I talked about earlier. It took quite a long time to get a system down of when I wanted to post, what content I wanted to do, and that system isn’t perfect by any means but it works for me, and I’m hoping it might help you as well.

It takes a lot of hard work to develop something creative that you love doing, even if it’s just a hobby, you wouldn’t be doing it if you didn’t love it…or I wouldn’t at least.

Hopefully these steps will help you outline some ways to condense the long hard efforts it takes to create content for a blog.

#1 Should I Blog, What Content, and How Often? 

First up is figuring out if you really want to blog and you are the only one who can answer that.  I would encourage you to experiment with it and see what might work for you.  Also, if blogging is something you want to pursue ask yourself exactly how much content you want to produce in a specific amount of of time.  Are you shooting for a daily post, weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly per say.  It doesn’t matter how much you want to post or how often you post….what matters is what works for you.  Best advice I can give you on this is preset yourself a bit and plan out what you want so you give yourself enough time to research and pull material together. This will help so that you aren’t overloading the plate and playing catch up everyday.  I’ve been all over the board before….daily, weekly, etc and it was all due to my schedule and making those priorities fit together. So plan accordingly for yourself and you will have a lot more fun blogging.

#2 Categories, Categories, Categories!

Now that you know how many posts you need to write, come up with some working categories so you have a good idea of what you are going to be working with.  Pinpoint what you want to write about and keep those categories current so that multiple topics can be posted to one category.  If you only have a certain amount of posts you can publish in one month, you have to be selective on how you spend that time. That ultimately means some ideas go to the chopping block and some may get stowed away for a rainy day.

#3: Challenge The Organizational “CHAOS” Skills.

Now that you have your ideas formed and categories made, you may be wondering how on earth am I going to get all this organized and finished like I want.  It can be chaotic at times I know…. trust me I know.  I have triplets remember 😛

Organization, Organization, Organization.

Check the inventory every once in a while and see if you’ve got so much material planned you honestly can’t meet the timeline you originally had.  Don’t be afraid to cut back, and chop chop some things if needed.  A couple of key things to remember here are….

  • Research: How much time do you need for researching topics? Will it take a considerable amount of time, or is this something I’ve already got ready to go? This step can save you a ton of time and frustration if you will do it. .
  • Content and Format: Some posts are more difficult to write than others. This can be a huge frustration if not planned out well as you can spend hours getting things formatted, planned, and ready.  Do you have five posts lined up back to back that are heavy topics and take lots of research?  If so, scramble that schedule up and space those suckers out a bit.

#4 Take the Time to Review and Schedule

Take a gander at what you’ve written before you hit that submit button.  Does it play out like you want, or does it look like someone dropped a bag of scrabble letters?  It’s always nice to have things pre-planned out, but I also know that’s not always possible.  Scheduling blog posts throughout the week or whatever timeline you create is very challenging.  You put a lot of hard work into writing this content so make sure you enjoy what you’ve done.  Enjoy the process, and have fun with creating the content you are passionate about.  Once you get that down….get those posts scheduled for whenever you choose, rinse, and then repeat all four steps for next time.

I’m super stoked for the event and watching all of you blow the doors off of this years Blaugust!

Have an amazing night!

Cheers,

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Kicking Things Off – Blaugust is REBORN!

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BlaugustRebornLogo2018Have you been browsing the blogosphere lately?  If so….I’m sure you’ve seen chatter going on about Blaugust returning!  It’s not only returning, it’s being kicked off in a new fashion like never before.  In just a couple of days the vast community of this lovely realm we call the blogosphere will be furiously posting articles of all sorts throughout the month of August.

This is my first post of many to come throughout the month about Blaugust, and I can’t tell you how excited I am  for this event!  People talk about blogging being dead, but that’s the farthest thing from the truth.  This is a large thriving and very strong community of beautifully creative people, and I’m honored I get to be a part of this wonderful chaos.  I jumped on board this year as a mentor, and would love to jump in and get to know you all more.  I took the blogging plunge in 2009/2010 and have enjoyed every second of it…..though it’s come with a roller coaster ride, the journey has been amazing!

What To Expect

First off this is a place of community and encouragement, so if you are nervous or not sure you want to take this ride…..I highly recommend you jump in as you won’t regret being around this amazing community of peeps.  Our mentors participating in the event have already begun blowing up the blogging realm with prep-posts about all the fun to come this month!  Check out the spread sheet of everyone who is joining in this year and where you can find them!

Blaugust was originally started by Belghast at Tales of the Aggronaut which was focused on a challenge for the month of August by posting each and every day.   This year the event has become a hybrid of Blaugust and the Newbie Blogger Initiative or (NBI) as some who participated in it may know.  NBI was the very first blogging event I had the pleasure of participating in, and it was an amazing experience as I learned so much from everyone.  If you want to know more about these events and where they came from, the passion behind them, and why the blogging community has such a big heart for writing and coming together please click here to see more. 

Participating and Goals

Haven’t ever blogged before, not a problem! Just started a blog and figuring things out, great! A veteran of the blogosphere and looking for the dusting cloth….no worries at all! Come join and jump in as we are gonna have some fun, and there are awards for no matter what level of blogger you are!

  • Newbie Blogger Award – You did it, you created a new blog and by god we are going to sing your praises for doing it!
  • Bronze Award – You made at least 5 posts during the Month of August 2018.
  • Silver Award – You made at least 15 posts during the Month of August 2018, go you!
  • Gold Award – You made at least 25 posts during the Month of August 2018, you are a badass!
  • Rainbow Diamond Award – You did it, you posted every single day during the Month of August 2018 and deserve accolades.

Need Help – No Problem! We have Mentors!

Doesn’t matter how experienced of a blogger you are, it’s always nice to have a community that you can reach out to for advice.  During this event we have a Mentor system and a very structured set of themes to help during the month!

  • July 25th – July 31st – Blaugust Prep Week – posts about the technical details of getting started in blogging.  Tutorials, advice, tips for naming your blog… that sort of stuff to get people ready to hit the ground on August 1st running.
  • August 1st – August 7th – Topic Brainstorming Week – posts about ideas for topics that the participants can then mine for the rest of the month.
  • August 8th – August 14th – Get to Know Each Other Week – hanging out and meeting other people in this new fledgling community and hopefully gaming together a bit!  Also highly support doing some sort of collaboration on shared topics!
  • August 15th – August 21st – Developer Appreciation Week – post about the things that you really appreciate in gaming or any other community… because chances are there is a developer or designer behind the things you love.
  • August 22nd – August 28th – Staying Motivated Week – tips and tricks that you might have to stay motivated and keep creating content against the tyranny of a blank screen.
  • August 29th – August 31st – The Final Stretch: Lessons Learned – as a way of getting us across the finish line, talk about some of the experienced you had during the month and maybe things you learned about yourself.

Ok seriously, who’s excited to jump in and come join this amazingness!!!  Come hangout with some of the most amazing bloggers on the face of this planet.

Bel put together a signup sheet if you choose to join, and we also have a Discord server where you can connect with all the bloggers and mentors.

What are you waiting for!!!! Click the links below and come say hello! You won’t regret it!