No one really wants to see another post about my leveling the Dragoon in Heaven on High. Admittedly I find the Deep Dungeon systems to be some of the more relaxing gaming in Final Fantasy XIV as it allows me to chill out in a rogue-like setting while listening to the amazing soundtrack. Instead this morning we are going to talk about some event related stuff. Blaugust has always been a blogging thing, but I am wondering if I should have changed the branding this year. Over the years I have attempted to make this a more relate-able process given that maybe writing big chunks of text is not really your thing.
Sure it is my hope it keep text based media alive and well for the foreseeable future, but I realize that while I bemoan the lack of written guides that have been replaced by video guides… YouTube can be a much more tactile format for interacting with your fans. Similarly while I am not the type to hang out on Twitch, Mixer or your streaming platform of choice… for some folks that is absolutely a community that they feel extremely welcome in. In the end what is really important is the serialized content aspect of this upcoming month. The concept of picking a thing that brings you joy and doing it over and over for an entire month until you reach a point where it feels unnatural to not do the thing.
After doing this daily blogging thing for years, it feels extremely awkward when I decide that I am too busy or otherwise engaged and cannot make a post. My morning posts are a long extended albeit mostly one sided dialog that I am having with you my readers. I think there is something deeply therapeutic about sharing your thoughts openly with the world in an uninterrupted manner. There was a time when the default method of long range conversation was to sit down and write a letter, that then could be read and re-read to digest its meaning. On some level I view my blog as me sharing a long extended open letter with you all.
However if traditional blogging is not your thing there are a lot of other methods for serialized content that could also be equally engaging with your readers/viewers. This morning I am going to throw a few ideas out there.
A Tumblr where you share a sketch every day and maybe post a few lines about your inspiration for it.
Stealing this directly from Grace, an project blog where you commit to working on something fairly daunting in scope and take us along for the journey as you post progress shots. This would be truly awesome for cosplay folks especially as you could see how the costumes are put together.
A nightly twitch stream where you treat it as though it were a talk show and either cover topics that you want to talk about or invite friends on to have discussions.
A micro-podcast where you release rapid-fire five to ten minute clips about something that happened that day or something that was on your mind.
Posting a recipe a day to social media and talking a little bit about the end product.
While still a blog, just talking about your media viewing habits… what you are enjoying watching and what hasn’t sat that well with you.
Posting a photo every day to Instagram visually illustrating your travels or the day to day flow of your life. Each time throwing a few words along with the photo to help us understand what is going on.
Releasing a song or a snippet of a song to SoundCloud every day and maybe talking a little bit about your inspirations behind it.
Basically all of those things are completely valid ways to approach Blaugust along with hundreds more that I am not even thinking about yet. I give you the freedom to take this concept and run with it and remake Blaugust in your own image. While yes I like the revitalization effect of this thing that I do, I think it is more important that it be treated as an event focused on self expression and the serialized nature of doing a thing multiple times during a single month. Get creative and impress us all by doing a thing that we never would have thought of.
While I decided to do this thing several years ago… it is now as much yours as it is mine.
