Author writes 400 page best-seller on Windows Mobile smartphone

EngadgetMobile is reporting today on author Peter V. Brett, who wrote his UK best-selling “The Warded Man” on his iPaq 6515 while commuting to work and back.

Mr Brett seems to be the epitome of the old smartphone vision – turning what would usually be your wasted downtime into productive work time, rather than the new iPhone vision of turning your downtime into entertainment time.

I have an HP IPaq 6515 smartphone. It’s a little clunky compared to some of today’s smartphones, but back in late 2005 when I picked it out, it was about as close as you could get to a tricorder. I chose it because it could run Microsoft Word, which meant I could write on the mini-keyboard, sync it to my computer, and then continue working in the same document on my desktop.

Finding time to write when you have a full-time job (not to mention a life outside work) is possibly the greatest hurdle for the would-be novelist to overcome. On a good day, I was on the subway an hour and a half. On a bad day, anyone who is familiar with the NYC subway system knows your commute can grow exponentially. I was always looking for a way to make that time productive, but writing longhand on the subway is impossible.

Enter the smartphone. On days when I could get a seat, I would put my iPod on to drown out the background chatter and start thumb-writing. I set a goal of 1,000 words a day for myself, and usually I could get at least 800 of those done on the commute. More if I wrote at lunch. At night, I would go home, sync the phone to my PC, and then clean up the file, fix typos, and finish off the quota (if needed).

The phone really changed my life, because it meant I could write anywhere, at any time. In a long line at the bank? Write. Waiting at the bar for a friend? Write. In a cab, or the passenger seat of a car? Write.

I would frequently even come out of the subway, walk up the steps and down the sidewalk, all the way to my office, still typing away. It’s pure luck that I never walked into an open manhole or got knocked over by a bike messenger. I would say that a good 60% of The Warded Man was written thus. I don’t know that I could ever have done it without this tool to make my historically unproductive time so productive.

From Del Rey Online interview.

While Peter has now given up his day job, and with it his regular commute, he still some times venture out on the train with his smartphone for inspiration.  So far he has resisted the siren call of other platforms, and has moved on to an iPaq 910 (which given that the device is not being subsidized in US means he must have shelled out a pretty penny for the Windows Mobile smartphone).