Blogging versus Writing, again

Will Duquette posts some thoughts in response to my thoughts yesterday about whether blogging is good practice for writers.

I, too, have seen the "Get a blank piece of paper and fill it" practice advice, and I tried it for a time a few years ago; it came from a book called Writer's Book of Days or something like that, and the book offered topics or scene suggestions to get started. I enjoyed it, but after a while I stopped, and not for any particular reason, really. Basically, I figured that once one gets used to writing every day, one doesn't have to practice it -- one merely does it. That's the function of the blog these days, I think.

By the way, the other day I discovered an old John Scalzi post about some of the same issues while digging through his archives for something else.

(Will also asks, in his post, how to pronouce "Jaquandor". I suppose it doesn't matter much, since I swiped it from an obscure 1980s comic book, but my way of saying it is "juh-KWAN-dor". I've kicked around using "Jack Wander" as a pseudonym on my horror novels, if I ever get around to writing them, as a nod back to my longtime Net alias. I doubt that would have much mileage, though, joke-wise.)