I was unaware of Blaugust until my friend and former colleague Scott jokingly mentioned it on Mastodon. In case you’re likewise unaware, Blaugust is a decade-old annual writing challenge, similar to NaNoWriMo, but instead of writing 50,000-word novels in November, you publish 31 blog posts in August:

The goal is to stoke the fires of creativity and allow bloggers and other content creators to mingle in a shared community while pushing each other to post more regularly. […]

Blaugust at its heart has always been about celebrating the creation of content on a regular schedule. The original challenge was to post 31 times during the month of August which is 31 days long. This can be posting every day or doubling up on some days to make the schedule a bit easier.

You may have caught the “shared community” in that first paragraph. Blaugust isn’t just about creating and publishing content on a regular basis. It’s also about being part of a community of bloggers:

Our hope is to create a nurturing environment where Veteran bloggers can help those just getting started and the cross-pollination of ideas can create something truly spectacular.

Since Blaugust is a “challenge,” there are, of course, “awards” for achieving milestones:

• Newbie Blogger Award – For signing up for Blaugust for the first time.
• Bronze Award – For writing at least 5 posts during August.
• Silver Award – At least 15 posts.
• Gold Award – At least 25 posts.
• Rainbow Diamond Award – Posted 31 times or more during August (“the original challenge”).

I can now claim the Newbie Blogger award, having officially signed up for the challenge, and the Bronze award, having already posted six times this month (this post makes seven)—meaning I’m almost halfway to Silver.

Gold and the coveted Rainbow Diamond awards are a stretch, but I have reason for hope: I’ve published 314 times since the start of the year, averaging more than one post a day, and I’m currently on a 203-day publishing streak—though some poorly timed travel will likely interrupt that. But I’m committed to publishing 24 more posts in 26 days.

Subscribe to follow my progress. Get each post by email, via RSS, or follow @jagsworkshop on Mastodon for notifications.

Interested in giving the challenge a shot? With three-ish weeks remaining in August, Bronze (at least) is eminently achievable, even if you’ve never blogged before. You can start blogging with WordPress, Medium, Tumblr, or Micro.blog. Not sure what to write? Try Blog Prompts for hundreds of ideas. Don’t forget to use the hashtag #blaugust2025!

You can share your progress with me: I’m on Mastodon and Bluesky. Let’s write!