Blaugust broke my brain

For the uninitiated, Blaugust is a blogging challenge, started by Belghast in 2014, where participants post 31 times during the month of August. A post for every day of the month. I took part this year and completed the challenge successfully. No slumps, no misses, no scrounging around for ideas—I just did it. And enjoyed it.

I realised about two-thirds of the way in that I had got into a comfortable rhythm of writing. Most importantly, I wrote things that I can look back proudly on. I did art and song exchanges, wrote about my hobbies—cinema, guitars—about travelling, and music, and film. I documented things I did on the website, wrote about the IndieWeb, and tried out weeknotes. Blaugust was a great opportunity to move some of the entries in my “blog post ideas” list on Trello to the “published” list.

The former has got longer and longer. Some of the ideas may never turn into blog posts right away, but I find that sitting on inklings for a while usually germinates into things worth writing about. For a blog that has seen years go by with no posts at all, this is a welcome change. And I’ve found that I can write now with confidence and speed that I didn’t think I possessed before. The muscle has been warmed up. It’s raring to go.

My list now contains many topics that would require a bit of research and some effort to put together posts on. Two months ago I would have looked at them as chores. Now I see opportunity. With all that’s happened in life over the last few years, I feel that my curiosity and burning desire to learn new things have dulled a little bit. Perhaps this newfound love for writing may be an avenue into the more “learn by doing” part of my brain again where I used to thrive.

I must admit, everything has started looking like blog fodder now—mundane observations, chats with customers, song lyrics, graffiti, a funny quip from a friend; it’s all fair game! I have found some utility in taking notes again, too, something which I should put to good use beyond the scope of this blog.

I’m not promising any sprints. But I’m certainly ready for a marathon. Blaugust broke my brain and put it back together again in the best way possible.