Over the last several months I've grown to have an amazing amount of respect for people who write technical books.  It's an amazingly time consuming process that involves a lot of staring at the screen wondering what the heck to write next.  There are an infinite number of ways to phrase every sentence, and your choice has a huge impact on whether or not the reader will get what you're trying to say.  On top of that, for me, writing is nowhere near as interesting as actually using the technology you're writing about.  I can't tell you how many times I've wished I could get the heck out of Word and into Visual Studio.  Layer on top a busy work and family life and you have something that I've found amazingly difficult.  Since I have a full time gig I have to write in the evenings and weekends.  With a wife and two young kids I'm not exactly oozing with tons of free time.  Writing is amazingly difficult. 

Rather than end this post and leave it as a paragraph of me complaining about how hard I'm finding writing, let me leave you with some tips that I've found to help in the writing process.

• Find someplace quite to work.  Unlike programming (and other tasks) where a little bit of background noise and/or music can be beneficial, writing needs quite and needs thought.  Find someplace you can think.  Don't try and get a little bit of writing done while you try and do something else (such as watch after the kiddos).
• Start with an outline of what your going to write.  Include the key goals that you have for each section and make sure you address each goal before you finish the section, or chapter.
• With your first draft don't worry about how terrible things sounds, how rough around the edges your points and/or description are, and how utterly crappy things flow.  Get your thoughts on paper.  Once you get everything out, go back and revise mercilessly until things sounds the way you want.
• Always think about the reader.  How will they expect to consume the information you're presenting?  What will they arleady know? What might they need to be reminded of?  How can you leverage what they know to help them learn what you're writing about?
• Don't be boring.  This might sounds obvious but I've found it very hard to present everything you want the reader to learn without having things turn into an unending flow of technical details, which results in boredom.  It's important to remember the reader needs breaks, encouragement, and direction.  And they also need to not be bored.
• Instead of writing blog posts about how hard writing is and then spewing off a bunch of writing tips (as if you have any clue what you're talking about) stay focused on your book and the deadlines you have....doh! :)