Use the Delhi metro to overcome writer's block
Sidin Vadukut -
Wednesday, April 29, 2009 4:51 PM
Ever since moving to Delhi late last year I'd made a solemn pledge to use my two hours worth of daily commute from Dwarka to Connaught Place to catch up with my reading. With a reasonable chance of getting a seat at least on the return journey I figured that I'd get at least a printed out New Yorker story or two out of the way daily. Alas I am cursed with magnanity and most days I give up my seat to a worthy old man or have it squeezed out from under me by scheming Delhi aunties.
And now this news in the New York Daily News makes me feel terribly inefficient:
Brooklyn author Peter Brett's first novel is a dark, demonic fantasy - he wrote it on the F train. Brett, 36, tapped out most of "The Warded Man," which hit U.S. bookshelves last month, on his smartphone on daily trips from the Fort Hamilton Parkway stop near his Kensington home to his job in Times Square. "I
started out just trying to take notes. I'd sit on the subway, I'd get a
good idea and I'd jot something down," said Brett, who works in medical
publishing. "I got very fast at writing with my thumbs. I found myself writing more and more." Soon, he was averaging 400 words each morning and evening.
Brett managed to thumb out a grand total of 100,000 or so words using only a smartphone. So if you are one of those budding authors who just can't find the perfect setting to compose your prose why not try the comforts of the Delhi Metro. The air conditioning is working splendidly, trains are mostly clean and comfy and fares are most reasonable. A BlackBerry should do nicely and you get signals over most of the Delhi Metro even in some of the underground bits.
Just watch out for those pickpocketers who "have been spotted in the very train you are traveling in". And if gallantry makes you give up your seat remember Brett's words:
"There's no way to write with your thumbs when you're standing up," he said."I was raised to give up my seat to just about everyone. [Now] unless you're really old or pregnant, I'm getting that seat."