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Q&A Writing first programming book

I was recently asked if I was interested in writing a book for a pretty reputable publisher, which of course I accepted. I am not a writer by trade, I am a software developer with some technical wr...

2 answers  ·  posted 14y ago by Nodey The Node Guy‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T01:15:32Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/1699
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Nodey The Node Guy‭ · 2019-12-08T01:15:32Z (almost 5 years ago)
I was recently asked if I was interested in writing a book for a pretty reputable publisher, which of course I accepted. I am not a writer by trade, I am a software developer with some technical writing training. The longest thing I have ever written is a dissertation on distributed computing, which is hardly the same as a book. Of course, this book is about a programming topic and needs to be instructional and informative. My problem is how to get started; I have been sitting at my computer now for about 3 hours and have re-written my introduction about 25 times now.

I am using [Scrivener](http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php) as my writing tool, which I have used for other reference-type works but for some reason I just have nothing in my brain to get started, my cork board is totally devoid of notes! I don't know what to do and I am feeling totally intimidated! Does anyone have advice for a first time book author to get started? I would be interested to know what your process is for getting started and how you organize thoughts!

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2011-02-20T21:12:06Z (almost 14 years ago)
Original score: 38