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.

Words are coming easier again to me today. In a very short time I have been able to churn out 8 pages of the second chapter, and it is still early in the night. I am up to 9500 words over the first two chapters.

I was finally able to set an old Windows 98 computer up with the screen shot requirements, and I think this will be my screen capture PC. Windows XP, for some reason, does not allow you to name the desktop setting adjustments as you could in Windows 98. So Windows XP does not make a good machine to acquire these screen captures.

Scott

The first chapter was completed at 8500 words. My first deadline is this week, and I am on target to meet it.

I just found out that I will be getting a new editor over at Osborne. That doesn't really affect me too much, as I haven't really begun working with one yet. I would be much more concerned if I had submitted six chapters already and then had to switch to a new editor.

I already have a few words written for Chapter 2. Tonight, writing came very easily and I wish I could continue writing all night. I used to be able to do that - last year when I didn't have a day job - but can't afford to do that now. Just when I am starting to get going, I have to stop and go to bed.

On a side note, I'm being asked to submit a proposal for another book. I don't know if I will have time to write it, but there is no harm submitting a proposal. I already have some existing content that can be reused, and I would consider hiring a ghost writer (or, more accurately, some contract help) to help me convert it to the format of the new book. We will see about that.

In the next day or two I have to capture all of the screenshots I was planning to use as figures in the first chapter. Osborne has some really weird requirements for screen shots, including very explicit configuration of the desktop and very specific crappy software that I need to use to capture the images. Oh well. I guess consistency between books is very important - most readers just don't realize how hard it is to do a lousy screen capture!

Best wishes,
Scott

I'm up over 7000 words now, and have almost completed writing the first chapter. I have 27 pages written, and my original plan estimated 30 pages. By the time I'm done with it, I will probably run a few pages over -- around 33 pages.

I have mixed feelings about how its going. On the one hand, it FEELS like it is taking an unbelievably long time to write this one chapter. I find myself wanting to play Grand Theft Auto 3 (an awesome game, by the way) instead of write. There have been too many days since I started this book where I haven't written a single word.

On the other hand, the calendar says I have only been really writing for two weeks. And MS Word reports that I have 993 minutes (around 16.5 hours) of total editing time. That doesn't seem like much at all. Heck, when writing my last book, 16 hours was a typical single (coffee-fueled) session of writing for me... (usually starting in the late afternoon and ending at the next morning.)

Anyways, this is what I will have to contend with over the next three months as I struggle to write the best JavaScript book that ever existed. And hopefully the first JavaScript 2.0 (JS2) book...

Scott

I have to pick up the pace a little... I just calculated that I have to write 1200 words per day to make my manuscript due date...

(And words in this blog don't count.)

I was able to spend another two or three hours this evening writing. I'm still going at it, but I wanted to publicly record that I'm up to 5140 words. I seem to be averaging 263 words per page so far, so my 560 page epic should run around 147,000 words. I had previously thought that this was going to be a 300,000 word effort - so that new MS Word template really cut my workload in half.