Aughost 2026
What is Aughost?
Aughost is a guided personal challenge event that takes place in the month of August. You can consider it somewhat similar to events such as Inktober.
This event does not have rigid rules, nor does it have submissions. Instead, it's intended as a way to help you flex your writing muscles, and motivate you to work on your ghost projects!
The ultimate goal of the challenge is simple: to write new dialogue for one (or more) of your ghosts.
How it works
There will be 100 dialogue prompts provided throughout the course of the event, with 3-4 prompts posted each day. If you use every prompt, you will end the event with 100 new dialogues for your ghost.
However, you don't have to participate in that specific way!
Only want to write 1 prompt a day? You'll still end up with 31 new dialogues.
Only have time to write on the weekends? No problem at all, you could write for all of that week's prompts on the weekend if you'd like.
Only have time to participate for the first two weeks? That's still ~50 new dialogues!
Not interested in my list of prompts? Feel free to write your own, or just wing it! (However, I don't recommend this unless you're an experienced writer!)
Since this is a personal challenge, you can adjust things however you need to suit you. So long as you write something new for your ghost, you're succeeding.
Picking a project
You can write for any of your ghosts that you like! You can write for...
A new ghost.
An existing WIP ghost.
A ghost you've already published and want to update.
A ghost you're planning to keep private.
Or whatever works for you!
Prompt tips
The prompts are here to inspire you, you don't have to follow them rigidly! I've tried to pick a lot of words that can have multiple interpretations, to make them as flexible as possible. (As a note, there may be duplicates from previous years. I don't reference previous prompt lists when writing new ones!)
You can use the prompts by...
Using the exact prompt word in a dialogue.
Using a variant of the prompt word in a dialogue. (ex: "starry" could also be used as "star", "starlit", "starstruck", etc.)
Writing a dialogue themed around the prompt word, without using the word itself.
It is also perfectly fine if a prompt word jumps your mind to an unrelated concept, and you write that instead! The prompts are here to inspire you, so however that happens is perfectly fine.
And of course, if a particular prompt doesn't work for you at all, feel free to toss it out and come up with a new one! The ultimate goal here is to write dialogue, not to use all the specific prompt words.
Sharing your progress
It is highly encouraged to share your progress as you go! Sharing is a good way for us to keep each other motivated, and if you're struggling with a prompt you might be able to get some feedback.
If you are directly sharing your dialogues, such as by sharing the text on the UDT Forum, Discord, or Ukadon, please mark the post as a spoiler! This is so that other participants can write without being influenced by your interpretation of the prompts. After the end of August, this restriction is lifted.
You can also share your progress by updating your ghost throughout the event. There is no need for spoiler warnings in this case!
It is encouraged to share what you've made after the event ends by publishing your ghost/releasing a network update/etc. However, this is not required. There are no submissions for this event, so you can handle things however you like.
Notes for this year
As always, some days have an extra prompt word to bring the total up to 100. This year, those days will be each Saturday, and the last two days of the event.
Additionally, due to my current work schedule, prompts will be posted around 12PM (noon) EDT.
That's all there is to it! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me at my links at the bottom of the page, or on the Aughost 2026 post on the UDT Forum. Good luck!