diff --git a/makefile b/makefile
index 1b3fc0d..fc82cec 100644
--- a/makefile
+++ b/makefile
@@ -10,14 +10,15 @@ PYTHON ::= venv/bin/python
 all: $(BUILD_DIR)/index.html $(BUILD_DIR)/syntax.css public $(BLOG_HTML)
 
 $(BUILD_DIR)/index.html: index.html $(BLOG) do_blog.py
-	@mkdir -p "$(dir $@)"
+	@mkdir -p "$(@D)"
 	$(PYTHON) do_blog.py --index "$<" "$@"
 
 $(BUILD_DIR)/blog/%.html: blog/%.md blog.html do_blog.py
-	@mkdir -p "$(dir $@)"
+	@mkdir -p "$(@D)"
 	$(PYTHON) do_blog.py "$<" "$@"
 
 $(BUILD_DIR)/syntax.css: makefile
+	@mkdir -p "$(@D)"
 	$(PYTHON) -m pygments -S rainbow_dash -f html > "$@"
 
 public: