As I go around talking to people and speaking at user groups and conferences, I've had several people ask me about my endeavors in book-writing and ask me "how do you get started"?
I often mention the standard requirements:
- Start by taking several photos of your family, because you won't be seeing them nearly as much over the next several month.
- Do some comparison shopping for straight-jackets. You'll probably need one before the project is complete. Even if you never find a use for it yourself, you may want to use it to constrain your editors.
- View zefrank's video on procrastination and take copious notes. There's information in there that'll prove to be worth gold in the writing process. Of course, you don't have to do this first, or even second or third. In fact, you should probably put this off until you're ready to avoid working on the book.
After that, the best advice that I can give anyone is to read Dave Thomas' series of articles on writing. I wish I had read this before I had written 3 books...might've made a world of difference (eg., I may not have written them!).
