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.

Chapter One, Page One

Well, I sat down tonight and finally started doing some actual writing. I got almost 3 pages down, in a period of about 2 hours.

Yes, I know 3 pages in 2 hours seems slow. But that's a great pace for me. If I can get the first chapter done in about 20 hours of work, I will be extremely happy.

Part of the challenge of writing the first few pages of a book, of course, is that I need to accomplish several things in chapter 1 that aren't a problem in later chapters:

* I want to capture the reader's attention - I don't want my book to be boring

* I want write to the level of the intended audience - I don't want to say things my readers won't understand, nor things my reader already knows

* It will set the tone for the rest of the book - a good first chapter makes a good book, a bad first chapter makes a bad book

The list could go on a bit longer, but I think you get my point. I want Chapter 1 to be a grand-slam home run - it will make my job easier for the next couple of months.

So far, so good. I like the way the book looks so far. It was fairly easy to write the first few pages.

Progress: 3 pages. 806 words.
Mood: Excellent, 10/10.