Blaugust the Second: Blaugust as a Writing Exercise

In the heat and doldrums of the late summer, Belghast sent out a call to his fellow bloggers: "Follow me! Post every day!"

I'm not sure what I want to get out of this Blaugust. A good chunk of my posts last year were about what a pain it turned out to be. And I ended up hardly posting in September, which I then dubbed Slacktember. While I don't think I can or want to sustain the daily pace of  Blaugust indefinitely, I am hoping to not be so burned out by the end that I only post twice the following month.

I also hope to post less about how I don't really want to post. Because that's kind of lame.

But if blogging is like a marathon, Blaugust is like a sprint at the end of the marathon. One of the keys is finding a good routine. Through the years, I have tended to compose my posts during downtime at the office, in between assignments. Obviously this means that when work gets busy, the blog suffers, because I have neither the habit nor the energy to writing at home in the evening.

I could get up in the morning and post while waking up, like Bel does. But that has never really worked well for me, and it impacts how late I can stay up. Unlike Scooter, I need a good 8 hours of sleep, so an 05:30 wake up requires that I be in bed asleep by 21:30 (9:30 for you non-military Americans). If I want to include a decent post in that routine, I need to get up even earlier, necessitating an even earlier bedtime. I understand now why my father, who arose about 4:30 every morning while I was growing up, was asleep in the recliner by about 7 pm on weeknights. And when would I ever get to gaming, the discussion of which is the whole reason for this blog?

Are all these things just excuses for not developing a good writing routine? If I had a little more self-discipline, could I develop the writing routine that I could then use to actually write the fiction I would like to? Can I develop the strength or stamina to write even when inspiration hasn't struck?

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If you're interested in joining the madness (Vloggers are welcome, too!), Belghast has a set of rules for qualifying for any prizes at the end. Your second stop should be the Blaugust Nook, where Bel is keeping track of everything and community members are sharing encouragement and ideas.
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