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.

Rediscovering the Passion for Writing

There is no denying it... I love writing. Between the blogs that I keep, and the books that I write, I can't ever see myself giving it up.

Don't get me wrong. Writing a book is a lot of work. But once you get going - once you get into a groove - the words just come flowing out of you, and before you know it another chapter is done.

Tonight, I wrote 2,000 words in about 4 hours. That's a blistering pace of 500 words per hour. Some might think that is a fast pace, while others see that as being slow. To me, it feels fast however I am always shocked to discover that I "only" wrote 2,000 words after what felt like an extremely productive night.

Of course, many things interfere with the creating of a computer book:
* Creating figures and illustrations (typically screen shots)
* Creating sample code
* Doing some impromptu research on the topic you are writing about (ie: compiling a list of vendors that will support something)

Each of those take time, and don't count towards the 500 words per hour pace. So really I spent 30 minutes writing 500 words, and 30 minutes taking screen shots, doing research, downloading and installing extra software, and just playing with what I am supposed to be writing about.

By the way, the Team System book is coming along nicely. Chapter 2 is at 4,000 words (with 9 figures so far), and I have another 6-8 hours of work left to finish it off.