[Python-authors] intro and looking for writing tips

[Matt Doar]

I've been writing technically for about 20 years now (papers, reviews, a
Ph.D. thesis, various articles, a book for O'Reilly etc) and I still think
"you need the determination to get it done" is the most important advice.
98% perspiration and all that. Then you really have to care whether people
understand what you are saying, and of course you need basic proficiency in
some language (I'm starting at the beginning). Along the way I've been
helped by:

   1. Thinking who I'm writing for.
   2. Creating an outline, at two levels if necessary, of the specific
   contents of what I want to communicate
   3. Reviewing the outline with others
   4. Filling in the outline.
   5. Proof-reading, copy editing adds a level of polish.

Sometimes I write down a list of things that have irritated me in other
articles or books to make sure I don't forget to avoid them.
O'Reilly has a general guide for book authors:
http://oreilly.com/oreilly/author/index.html

All very general, and I'm still learning as I go.

~Matt

On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 11:17 AM, Doug Hellmann <doug.hellmann at gmail.com>wrote:

> Hi, everyone!
>
> I meant to send out an introductory message to the list a few weeks back,
> but have been dealing with home repair issues that couldn't be put off.
>  That's all under control now, though, so I'm ready to get things going
> here.
>
> By way of a quick intro for those who don't know me: I've been working with
> Python since '98-99 (version 1.4).  Right now I am a senior developer for
> Racemi, and our product is a suite of data center automation tools (server,
> infrastructure, and image management) built using Python 2.6.  As far as
> writing experience, I blog and have written for Python Magazine, and last
> year I was Editor in Chief.  I've also done a few technical reviews for
> books.
>
> As I've said in the past, I wanted to get this list going as a way of
> building a stronger group of writers and editors within the Python
> community.  I hope we can trade advice and find collaborators for new and
> recurring projects.
>
> I'm fairly new to writing and still looking for ways to improve, so I'll
> start off with a couple of questions from that perspective: What books or
> articles have had an impact on your writing style?  What advice would you
> give a new writer?
>
> So far I've been approaching it as I do programming: Reading a lot of other
> people's writing and looking for projects to let me practice my own.  I've
> also tried to revisit some of my "earlier" work to study it and look for
> ways to improve.  If you're an author, what did you do to improve your work
> when you were starting out?  What actually worked, and what was a waste of
> time?
>
> Doug
>
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