Hi there. My name is Scott Duffy, and welcome to my book writing log. I have documented the process of writing my last two books on this site, and have started my third. This book will be called Visual Studio Team System In Action, and should be available in 2005.

It's All Coming Back To Me

Today, I spent most of the day installing the Visual Studio Team System software -- getting to know my patient, so to speak. For the next few months, I will be poking and prodding this thing, trying to convince it to surrender it's secrets. And today is the day I let it know who was boss.

OK, maybe that's a tad melodramatic. You can forgive a guy for looking at such a mundane task as installing software all day as something a bit more exciting than it is.

I feel a bit like Wil Wheaton tonight. "I am a professional author." Sure, I only earn a small percentage of my income from writing, but that qualifies as an author nonetheless. It's odd, but for the last few years I have pretty much gotten into a daily habit of writing. I write this blog, and 3 or 4 others. Besides programming, I spend a little of each day at work writing specifications and other technical documents. And some would say my emails tend to be on the long side - I can spend several hours crafting the perfect email.

So, in writing a book, the actual writing is not a problem for me. If I know what I want to say, I can say it.

That's a big "if"...

The thing about writing a book is that publishers, of course, expect their books to be in a certain format. In the olden days, before the Microsoft Word and the personal computer changed the face of writing, an author just had to ensure his typewriter was set to double space. Now, authors must make their manuscript conform to specific MS Word templates - ensuring every character is formatted correctly.

The challenge is learning all of the template styles, and when to use them. How do I format a bullet list again? How can I insert a table here?

Luckily, the publisher provides several examples and other documents to help you figure this all out. But this is the hardest part of writing Chapter 1... not what to write, but how to format it. It's all coming back to me now.