Preparing to write: make an outline!

It's always a good idea to make an outline before you start to write the actual text. Setting up an outline will help you to “get organized”; it reduces the chance of forgetting something vital, and it will make the actual writing job a lot easier.

You can follow these steps when making your outline:

Define exactly what you want your readers to learn from your work.
Divide the subject matter into logical units – chapters and/or sections and/or subsections.
Make sure the order of the units makes sense, especially for a howto, tutorial or user's guide. That is: arrange the units in such a way that whatever the user has to do first, or understand first, also comes first in your documentation.
Present your outline on the firebird-docs list at sourceforge.net and ask for comments.

Once you are satisfied with your outline, look it over thoroughly and decide whether you have all the (raw) information you need to start writing. Ideally, you want to have all the information ready before you start to write, because sometimes a formerly unknown piece of information may lead you to choose a different document structure. You'd better have that information while you're still in the outline phase, then.