🔗 Share this article

This is somewhat embarrassing to reveal, but let me explain. Five novels wait by my bed, every one partially finished. Inside my mobile device, I'm some distance through 36 audio novels, which pales alongside the nearly fifty Kindle titles I've abandoned on my Kindle. This doesn't include the increasing collection of pre-release copies next to my living room table, competing for praises, now that I work as a published writer in my own right.

Starting with Determined Reading to Intentional Abandonment

At first glance, these figures might seem to confirm contemporary comments about today's attention spans. One novelist observed not long back how simple it is to break a person's focus when it is fragmented by online networks and the constant updates. He remarked: “It could be as individuals' attention spans shift the literature will have to adjust with them.” However as someone who previously would stubbornly finish every novel I started, I now view it a personal freedom to set aside a story that I'm not enjoying.

Life's Finite Duration and the Wealth of Possibilities

I do not believe that this practice is caused by a short focus – more accurately it stems from the sense of life moving swiftly. I've consistently been impressed by the monastic maxim: “Place mortality daily in mind.” Another idea that we each have a mere limited time on this world was as shocking to me as to anyone else. But at what different time in history have we ever had such instant entry to so many incredible masterpieces, at any moment we choose? A glut of treasures awaits me in every library and within every digital platform, and I want to be intentional about where I focus my attention. Might “DNF-ing” a story (shorthand in the book world for Did Not Finish) be not just a indication of a poor mind, but a thoughtful one?

Choosing for Connection and Self-awareness

Especially at a time when book production (consequently, selection) is still controlled by a certain demographic and its concerns. While engaging with about people different from ourselves can help to strengthen the ability for empathy, we additionally select stories to consider our own lives and place in the world. Unless the works on the racks better reflect the experiences, realities and interests of potential readers, it might be extremely hard to keep their attention.

Modern Authorship and Reader Engagement

Certainly, some writers are actually skillfully writing for the “modern attention span”: the short style of some modern novels, the compact sections of different authors, and the brief chapters of various contemporary stories are all a impressive demonstration for a briefer approach and technique. Additionally there is plenty of author advice designed for capturing a audience: hone that initial phrase, enhance that opening chapter, raise the tension (higher! more!) and, if writing mystery, place a victim on the first page. This suggestions is all sound – a potential representative, publisher or audience will spend only a several precious seconds determining whether or not to proceed. There's little reason in being difficult, like the writer on a class I attended who, when questioned about the narrative of their book, declared that “the meaning emerges about 75% of the way through”. Not a single author should put their audience through a sequence of challenges in order to be understood.

Crafting to Be Accessible and Allowing Space

But I certainly create to be clear, as much as that is possible. Sometimes that demands guiding the audience's hand, directing them through the plot beat by succinct step. At other times, I've discovered, insight requires time – and I must grant my own self (as well as other writers) the grace of meandering, of adding depth, of straying, until I hit upon something meaningful. An influential writer contends for the novel discovering new forms and that, instead of the traditional plot structure, “other structures might enable us conceive novel methods to craft our stories dynamic and authentic, keep creating our books novel”.

Change of the Story and Contemporary Formats

Accordingly, each opinions converge – the story may have to evolve to suit the modern reader, as it has repeatedly done since it originated in the 18th century (as we know it now). Maybe, like past writers, future creators will go back to publishing incrementally their novels in publications. The future such writers may already be releasing their writing, part by part, on web-based platforms including those visited by millions of regular visitors. Creative mediums shift with the times and we should permit them.

More Than Short Focus

Yet let us not say that every evolutions are completely because of reduced concentration. Were that true, short story collections and flash fiction would be viewed much more {commercial|profitable|marketable