The First Day In August

It's that time of year again. The time when every second post in your RSS feed (if that's still a thing people use) looks almost exactly the same. Yes, it's the run-up to Blaugust!

We all do it, don't we? Write up a post saying exactly what everyone else is saying, with all the same links and all the same logos. It wouldn't be Blaugust without the run-up.

I confess I didn't think we were going to have a Blaugust this year. I mean, it's only a couple of weeks until August and in recent years the whole thing has tended to kick off a week or so before the calendar flips. I thought we'd already missed our window. 

Mostly, though, Belghast, the amazing motive force and organizing principle behind the annual event has, by has own account, been having such a hard time of things lately I figured the very last thing he'd need would be more responsibility. 

But you know what they say. If you want something done, ask a busy man. Actually, I believe the saying is "ask a busy woman". Probably going to need some work, that saying, if it's going to survive much longer.

True, though. It's those that can that do. There, I made that one up myself! Feel free to pass it on. It doesn't make any sense but when has that ever stopped a meme? (We're calling sayings and catchphrases memes now, right? Or is that over, now?)

Three enormous cheers for Bel for stepping up, yet again, to get this blogging ball rolling. It wouldn't be summer without Blaugust.

Belghast has everything you could possibly want to know about what Blaugust is, why we do it, how it works and why you should join in, all explained with a clarity and brevity I couldn't hope to match in this post here.

I've signed up and so can you. Here's the link. 

And here's the link to the Blaugust Discord. I'm signed up to that, too, although the more I use Discord the more uncomfortable I get so I probably won't be on much.

I imagine I'm down as a Mentor again which is fine by me. Feel free to ask me any questions about blogging you think I might be able to answer. A small field, I know. I'll almost certainly be handing out advice right and left, whether anyone asks for it or not. Why break the habit of a lifetime?

The thing about Blaugust is this: it works. I'm not sure how many totally new names we'll see this year. I suspect the glory days of the Newbie Blogger Initiative (another great event now subsumed within Blaugust itself) are long gone. I can't see me having to add forty or so new blogs to my blog roll this go round, which is probably just as well, since I never take any of the old ones off. 

Here in this corner of the blogosphere, it's not so much fresh blood we need as a transfusion from those of us still plugging away into the writing arms of those who've dropped behind. My god, that was a labored metaphor. Here's my first piece of blogging advice for the year: don't start a metaphor if you don't know how to finish it.

What I'm saying is, there are a lot of silent blogs in my blog roll that I consider to be dormant, not dead. At least I hope they are. That's why I don't cull the list to a manageable level. You never know when one of them will spark and sputter and spring back to life.

Blaugust is a set of jumper cables for bloggers whose batteries have gone flat. (Look, didn't I just talk to you about metaphors?) A lot of people who used to post and don't any more still read. When they see all these Yay! Blaugust! posts and everyone getting all excited it starts their juices flowing again. At least I imagine that's what happens. I never stop blogging so I'm guessing how it might feel...

Two bloggers, whose words of wit and wisdom I would very much like to see pop up in my Feedly or on my blog roll at least on a semi-regular basis, have already expressed a wish, even an intent, to dust off the keyboard and make a comeback. I would urge any other lapsed bloggers reading this to give some consideration to joining them. I'm pretty sure Bel has some fatted calves laid in for just such an eventuality. 

And if there's anyone reading this who still hasn't given the whole blogging malarkey a try yet - what are you waiting for? If we can all do it, surely you can. There'll never be a better time than now!

I think that just about covers it. Meet back here on the first of August and we'll see how it goes.

It'll be great! It always is!