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This is slightly embarrassing to reveal, but let me explain. A handful of books sit by my bed, all partially finished. On my smartphone, I'm partway through over three dozen listening titles, which seems small alongside the nearly fifty Kindle titles I've set aside on my digital device. That does not include the growing collection of advance editions near my coffee table, striving for blurbs, now that I work as a published novelist in my own right.

Starting with Determined Completion to Purposeful Letting Go

On the surface, these stats might seem to confirm recent opinions about current focus. A writer observed recently how effortless it is to distract a person's attention when it is scattered by social media and the 24-hour news. The author suggested: “It could be as readers' focus periods evolve the fiction will have to adjust with them.” But as an individual who previously would stubbornly finish any book I started, I now view it a individual choice to set aside a book that I'm not in the mood for.

The Short Time and the Abundance of Possibilities

I wouldn't believe that this practice is caused by a brief attention span – rather more it stems from the sense of time moving swiftly. I've often been affected by the spiritual principle: “Place mortality each day in mind.” One reminder that we each have a mere finite period on this Earth was as horrifying to me as to everyone. And yet at what previous time in human history have we ever had such direct availability to so many amazing works of art, anytime we choose? A surplus of treasures greets me in any bookstore and on each screen, and I aim to be deliberate about where I channel my time. Could “DNF-ing” a book (shorthand in the publishing industry for Unfinished) be rather than a sign of a weak focus, but a thoughtful one?

Selecting for Empathy and Self-awareness

Especially at a era when the industry (consequently, acquisition) is still led by a certain demographic and its concerns. Although engaging with about people different from our own lives can help to build the muscle for understanding, we also read to think about our individual journeys and place in the world. Before the titles on the racks more accurately reflect the identities, realities and issues of possible readers, it might be very difficult to hold their focus.

Modern Writing and Audience Engagement

Of course, some writers are actually skillfully crafting for the “contemporary attention span”: the concise writing of certain modern books, the focused fragments of others, and the brief sections of several recent stories are all a excellent demonstration for a briefer approach and technique. And there is plenty of writing guidance aimed at securing a reader: perfect that first sentence, improve that beginning section, elevate the tension (higher! further!) and, if writing thriller, place a dead body on the beginning. Such advice is completely good – a possible agent, editor or audience will devote only a several precious minutes choosing whether or not to continue. There's little reason in being contrary, like the individual on a class I participated in who, when challenged about the narrative of their novel, announced that “the meaning emerges about three-quarters of the way through”. No author should subject their reader through a series of challenges in order to be comprehended.

Creating to Be Clear and Allowing Patience

And I do write to be clear, as far as that is feasible. On occasion that demands guiding the consumer's interest, guiding them through the story step by succinct step. At other times, I've realised, insight requires time – and I must grant my own self (along with other creators) the grace of meandering, of building, of deviating, until I find something authentic. A particular thinker makes the case for the story discovering new forms and that, as opposed to the traditional dramatic arc, “different forms might assist us imagine new approaches to create our narratives alive and true, persist in producing our novels fresh”.

Change of the Story and Contemporary Mediums

From that perspective, each opinions converge – the novel may have to adapt to fit the modern consumer, as it has constantly done since it began in the 1700s (in the form today). Maybe, like past novelists, coming creators will return to serialising their novels in newspapers. The next such creators may already be sharing their writing, chapter by chapter, on online sites including those visited by many of monthly users. Creative mediums shift with the era and we should let them.

More Than Short Focus

But let us not claim that any changes are all because of limited concentration. If that was so, brief fiction compilations and flash fiction would be regarded far more {commercial|profitable|marketable