We have not written a book! Practical experience in creating a programming manual

The idea to write this note was presented by the article “We wrote a book! Practical experience of publishing a book on programming . " Like that author, I started writing at the beginning of the year and finished by mid-April, I worked about the same amount. But the work of a slightly different sense - a tutorial on the programming language C.

Before that, I already had experience in writing educational materials on programming and another in the form of courses and training cycles, had experience teaching teenagers programming. The course that I wrote this time was primarily intended for citizens, from the age of 14-15, already familiar with the basics of programming through other languages.

The need for such benefits is ripe for the beginning of December last school year. December went to look at the existing literature and textbooks on language C. Despite the fact that among the viewed were worthy works, none of them fit. For example, the well-known K & R edition, which is often recommended, is not suitable for beginners. Other publications were either voluminous or did not provide objective knowledge. I also needed an allowance calculated for no more than 30 pairs (60 academic hours).

The first thing that is required when writing a course is to develop an approximate plan and approximate content of classes. This means that it is necessary to designate in what sequence what is being studied, what is being mastered in each particular lesson. It takes about a week to do this.
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Then it is time to consistently write each lesson. Performance Overview:

1. For the current lesson, it is necessary to think over (but not yet write!) The sequence of presentation of the material, illustrative examples for each new concept, relevant tasks inside and at the end of the lesson (hour).
2. Code writing demo examples. Often, you have to give up something, add something. In short, the practice makes its own adjustments to the originally planned (on average, a couple of hours).
3. Then work on the text and style of presentation. When the goal is to explain as intelligible and easier as possible, then you have to think about each sentence. To write such text on one A4 page, it took me at least an hour. And the volume of the text of each lesson is on average just under three pages.
4. Verification of tasks included in the lesson, their assessment for the required time for students to complete (about an hour).
5. If there should be pictures in the lesson (screenshots, diagrams), then it is still an average of an hour.

So, to create about 4 pages I needed 7-9 hours! If there are 23 classes in total, it turns out that I spent time exclusively on writing classes for about 160-210 hours, which is about 1.5 times more than the author of the above article (there are 120 hours), and the amount of text there seems to be more. Honestly, I always thought that I was writing very slowly. But the difference is only 1.5 times reassuring and says that it is almost normal. If we take into account everything else (the study of literature, general planning, placement of classes on the site), then we can say that the creation and “publication” of this course cost me 250-300 hours, i.e. 7.5 (300/40) full-time work weeks.

Of course, I understand that if I knew the subject initially thoroughly and had a lot of programming experience in C, then the manual would be written twice as fast.

I was surprised that the author of that article could write only an hour a day. I often left the hour to just "swing and drive into the topic." Likely features of temperament. So if I got to work, then for 2-3 hours. One hour a day - did not make sense.

Similarly, I had a time when the thought simply did not move. However, I do not associate this with the mood, but with the fact that the brain is able to digest and process a certain amount of information. At some point, it is overloaded and requires rest. Although, probably, such brain endurance trains as well as physical.

I would also like to mention the perfectionism noted by the author of that article. Yes, despite its attractiveness from the point of view of creating a well-thought-out “product” of high quality, it can make it difficult to see the whole and distribute its mental resources in time. The desire for perfectionism arose at that moment when I was beginning to very well realize the subject being described, to see every little thing. This perfectionism gives a slight euphoria and I want to do even better. Apparently the same thing happens with people involved in sports, dancing, etc., when they describe the joy of what they feel every muscle and control every movement. But at some point you catch yourself thinking: "went schizophrenia."

The author of that article wrote a book that somehow popularizes Windows, and, therefore, the book is more profitable than Microsoft than the author (he writes that the fee is tiny). Well, I don’t know if you are very young and want first of all to show and prove yourself, maybe it is for the better. I have already passed this, so in this case I would have been strangled by a toad.

I usually post my scribbling on the site. But lest it fall, the pdf version of the course is from Yandex .