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.

So, What's This Book Then?

As previously mentioned, I've signed a deal to write my third book. (Well, technically speaking it will be my fourth book, since my first book never got published.) The title of the book (at this point) is:

Visual Studio Team System In Action

Microsoft Visual Studio Team System is collection of software development tools designed to improve the productivity of development teams and quality of the software created by those teams. I have another blog at which I talk more about the technology inside Team System.

I have committed to write a manuscript of 350 pages. Luckily, I have several months to complete this project, so I will have the time to polish each chapter before having to send it in. It's been my experience that when I am forced to write more than 1 chapter per week, I don't have as much time to edit and re-edit as I would like.

When writing, for each subsection in a chapter, I typically go through a process similar to the following:
1) I decide what point I would like to get across in this section of the book
2) I write several paragraphs or pages to make that point
3) I go back over each sentence, revising words to clarify what I wanted to say. I add examples where required, move things around, or cut things out completely. Often, I find myself completely rewriting things if I don't like they way it had turned out.

So, having the extra time to do a proper job is one of the most appealing things about this project for me (second, of course, to the subject itself).

Over the next couple of months, as the book progresses, I will journal my progress here. If anyone has any questions or comments, please don't hesitate to add them.