

Ask HN: I'm writing my first book ever, on HTML5, do you have any advice? - simonsarris

I signed the contract last week.<p>I'm shooting for ~500 pages, give or take, with the largest part being Canvas at ~150 pages. The book will be in full color.<p>I've never written anything of this scale before and certainly never authored a book.<p>Do you have any advice in general? Or anything you'd wish was in an HTML5 book that might not be present in others so far, etc?<p>Also, do you have any pet peeves about technical books, or things you wish authors did more or less of?<p>Thanks!
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jnorthrop
I just finished up my first book and while it is much shorter than yours will
be (18k words) I'll share what helped me:

1\. Write how you want to write. In other words write in your own style. If
you are funny, that's fantastic, but if you prefer to present things in a
straight-forward methodical fashion then do that. You will be spending a ton
of time writing and re-writing: It will come much easier if it is in your own
voice.

2\. Don't be afraid to jump around. You do not need to start writing with
chapter 1, then on to chapter 2, etc. Write whatever you are inspired to write
at the moment. You can always go back and fill in the hard stuff later. You
should do everything you can to make the process enjoyable, so, with that in
mind, procrastinating frustrating parts is OK.

3\. Write on a schedule and stick to it. If you don't feel like writing but it
is the time you've scheduled, do it. I found on a number of occasions that
even if I didn't feel like writing, once I started my mood shifted. Although
sometimes I just failed to produce anything.

That's just off the top of my head. I'll come back and add more if I can think
of worthwhile stuff to add. I will say though that the act of writing and
completing a book was tremendously empowering and fun.

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brandoncordell
I know this isn't something you can just "turn on" but... personally I love it
when technicals books read with a nice "flow".

For example I hate it when books read like "here's an explanation of this.
Here's how you do this. Here's the next thing. Here's how you do the next
thing". They read like a step by step manual.

I like technical books that read like a novel, even though you're instructing
the user. If you can incorporate a "story" at the same time, you have my
attention for the length of the book.

A book that I can think of off the top of my head that I enjoyed reading, and
how it read, was The Well Grounded Rubyist.

I wish I could better explain what I'm thinking at the moment. Once I get done
with my nights work I'll try to come back to this.

~~~
bawllz
Totally agree. To expand on this idea, perhaps you could select a couple of
sample problems, and work through their solutions. Example being a simple
canvas game, explaining the various elements as they are introduced,
concluding with a working game.

