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This is slightly awkward to reveal, but here goes. Five novels rest beside my bed, each partially finished. Inside my smartphone, I'm partway through 36 audiobooks, which seems small next to the 46 ebooks I've abandoned on my e-reader. That doesn't account for the expanding pile of pre-release copies near my side table, vying for praises, now that I have become a professional author in my own right.

From Determined Finishing to Intentional Setting Aside

Initially, these numbers might look to support contemporary comments about today's concentration. A writer observed recently how effortless it is to distract a reader's focus when it is scattered by online networks and the constant updates. The author stated: “Perhaps as individuals' focus periods evolve the literature will have to adjust with them.” But as an individual who previously would stubbornly finish whatever novel I picked up, I now regard it a human right to put down a book that I'm not in the mood for.

Our Limited Duration and the Wealth of Options

I don't believe that this tendency is caused by a short attention span – instead it comes from the awareness of time passing quickly. I've consistently been struck by the monastic principle: “Keep mortality every day in view.” One idea that we each have a only 4,000 weeks on this Earth was as shocking to me as to everyone. However at what previous time in our past have we ever had such immediate access to so many mind-blowing works of art, whenever we choose? A surplus of treasures greets me in any library and on each device, and I want to be deliberate about where I channel my energy. Could “DNF-ing” a novel (shorthand in the publishing industry for Incomplete) be not a indication of a poor intellect, but a thoughtful one?

Choosing for Understanding and Reflection

Especially at a time when publishing (and therefore, selection) is still controlled by a particular demographic and its quandaries. Even though reading about people unlike our own lives can help to build the capacity for understanding, we furthermore read to think about our individual lives and place in the society. Until the works on the displays better reflect the backgrounds, realities and concerns of prospective readers, it might be extremely difficult to hold their attention.

Modern Writing and Consumer Attention

Certainly, some writers are successfully writing for the “contemporary attention span”: the short style of some current books, the tight sections of additional writers, and the short sections of various contemporary stories are all a excellent showcase for a briefer style and style. Additionally there is plenty of craft tips designed for capturing a consumer: refine that first sentence, enhance that opening chapter, increase the tension (more! more!) and, if crafting mystery, introduce a mystery on the opening. This advice is all solid – a possible publisher, house or audience will devote only a a handful of valuable minutes determining whether or not to continue. There is little reason in being obstinate, like the person on a class I participated in who, when challenged about the narrative of their manuscript, announced that “it all becomes clear about 75% of the through the book”. No writer should put their reader through a set of difficult tasks in order to be understood.

Creating to Be Understood and Allowing Time

And I do write to be understood, as much as that is feasible. At times that demands leading the audience's hand, guiding them through the narrative point by efficient point. Sometimes, I've discovered, comprehension takes time – and I must grant me (along with other authors) the grace of exploring, of layering, of deviating, until I find something meaningful. An influential thinker contends for the fiction discovering fresh structures and that, as opposed to the conventional dramatic arc, “different structures might assist us conceive novel methods to make our tales dynamic and authentic, persist in making our books original”.

Transformation of the Book and Current Platforms

From that perspective, both viewpoints converge – the novel may have to adapt to fit the today's consumer, as it has constantly accomplished since it first emerged in the 1700s (in its current incarnation today). Maybe, like previous writers, future writers will revert to serialising their novels in periodicals. The next those creators may already be sharing their work, section by section, on web-based platforms like those accessed by countless of regular readers. Creative mediums shift with the times and we should allow them.

Not Just Short Concentration

But we should not claim that all shifts are entirely because of limited concentration. Were that true, concise narrative anthologies and very short stories would be regarded far more {commercial|profitable|marketable