BlackBox

I can’t recommend enough reading Dave Thomas’ series on technical writing (plus a podcast). Here’s a short synopsis of each, but I recommend you check them out for yourself.

1. So You Want to Write a Book? - Why do you want to write a book? Am I passionate about what I want to teach people? What’s in store for me once I decide that I really do want to write a book?
2. The Hero’s Journey - What is the reader’s journey through your book? How do you pace it? How do you make sure they get where they need to go?
3. The Hero’s Journey: Are You Experienced - How to guid the user through successive learning in your book.
4. Readers on Your Shoulders - How to think about the different types of readers as you’re writing your book, who are they and how do you communicate with each with the same material?
5. Finding Your Voice - How do you sound like you while writing? This can be tricky and this will help.
6. Wrandom Writing Wrules - Talks about what a good writing environment is for people (it varies), just writing and not worrying about layout issues, scheduling a time to write like going to the gym, not starting at the beginning of your book, cut and paste, interacting with others while writing, saving and archiving often, cross referencing and outlining. All good stuff to read for first time or veteran authors.
7. Reviewers, And How Not to Kill Them - Talks about the process of reviewing and how not to let it affect you (too much, believe me reviewers can be tough).

I’ll try not to rehash these particular topics (although I will touch on a few these from my own perspective throughout this series).