How to write a book in a flash

Each week, Evan Peterson rounds up stories from across the Web that scribes of all stripes should check out. Being productive with one’s time is a constant challenge for a writer, especially when one has to set his own routine. Are there hacks that can help you out? Also, why money helps writers, and why joke writing is the hardest writing.

Write fast and visit the park: Tools,, tips and reminders on how to be more productive are old hat. There are no more secrets. There are only hacks. In this piece for Business Insider, Nicholas Carlson takes readers through nine “productivity hacks” that helped him to write a book about Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer in only six weeks. His process sounds simple, comfortable and efficient. There’s coffee, long lunches and walks in the park. In between? Writing! But in a point about not stripping the screw, i.e. forcing it, he gets to the thing that really made him more productive than most:

I gave myself a break and allowed myself to just stare at the screen if that’s all I was able to do at that moment. I did not allow myself to look at my phone, check email, or otherwise distract myself.