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This is a bit awkward to admit, but here goes. A handful of novels rest beside my bed, each only partly read. Inside my smartphone, I'm partway through 36 audiobooks, which seems small compared to the nearly fifty ebooks I've set aside on my digital device. That doesn't include the expanding stack of advance editions next to my living room table, striving for praises, now that I work as a published writer personally.

Starting with Persistent Finishing to Deliberate Abandonment

At first glance, these figures might look to confirm recently expressed opinions about current focus. A writer observed not long back how easy it is to break a individual's focus when it is scattered by social media and the constant updates. He suggested: “Maybe as individuals' attention spans evolve the literature will have to change with them.” However as an individual who once would doggedly complete whatever novel I began, I now view it a personal freedom to set aside a story that I'm not connecting with.

Life's Short Time and the Abundance of Options

I don't think that this habit is due to a short concentration – instead it stems from the sense of existence slipping through my fingers. I've often been struck by the monastic teaching: “Hold mortality daily in mind.” Another point that we each have a only finite period on this planet was as shocking to me as to others. But at what different moment in human history have we ever had such direct access to so many mind-blowing works of art, anytime we choose? A surplus of options meets me in any bookstore and within every device, and I want to be purposeful about where I channel my time. Might “not finishing” a novel (shorthand in the literary community for Did Not Finish) be rather than a mark of a limited intellect, but a discerning one?

Choosing for Connection and Reflection

Notably at a time when publishing (and therefore, acquisition) is still dominated by a particular social class and its concerns. While reading about characters distinct from ourselves can help to strengthen the muscle for empathy, we furthermore choose books to reflect on our individual journeys and place in the universe. Until the works on the racks more fully represent the identities, stories and issues of potential audiences, it might be very difficult to hold their attention.

Current Storytelling and Audience Engagement

Certainly, some writers are indeed successfully creating for the “modern interest”: the short prose of some recent works, the tight sections of different authors, and the quick parts of numerous recent stories are all a impressive showcase for a more concise form and technique. And there is an abundance of author guidance designed for securing a audience: hone that first sentence, polish that opening chapter, elevate the stakes (further! further!) and, if writing crime, introduce a victim on the beginning. Such advice is completely solid – a possible publisher, editor or reader will devote only a several valuable moments choosing whether or not to proceed. There is no benefit in being difficult, like the writer on a class I attended who, when confronted about the storyline of their book, announced that “everything makes sense about 75% of the way through”. No novelist should put their follower through a sequence of challenges in order to be comprehended.

Crafting to Be Understood and Giving Space

But I certainly create to be understood, as much as that is achievable. On occasion that needs leading the audience's interest, guiding them through the plot point by succinct beat. Occasionally, I've discovered, comprehension requires perseverance – and I must allow me (and other creators) the grace of meandering, of building, of deviating, until I hit upon something meaningful. One thinker contends for the story discovering new forms and that, rather than the traditional dramatic arc, “other patterns might enable us imagine innovative ways to craft our narratives dynamic and true, persist in producing our novels fresh”.

Evolution of the Story and Modern Mediums

Accordingly, the two perspectives agree – the story may have to adapt to fit the contemporary reader, as it has constantly achieved since it began in the 18th century (as we know it now). Perhaps, like previous authors, tomorrow's creators will go back to serialising their books in periodicals. The next these creators may currently be releasing their writing, section by section, on digital sites like those visited by countless of monthly visitors. Art forms shift with the era and we should let them.

Not Just Brief Attention Spans

However we should not assert that every changes are entirely because of reduced attention spans. If that were the case, brief fiction anthologies and micro tales would be viewed far more {commercial|profitable|marketable