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It's slightly uncomfortable to reveal, but I'll say it. A handful of titles rest beside my bed, every one partially consumed. Inside my mobile device, I'm some distance through 36 audio novels, which seems small alongside the nearly fifty ebooks I've set aside on my e-reader. This does not account for the expanding collection of early copies next to my side table, competing for endorsements, now that I am a published author myself.

From Persistent Completion to Deliberate Abandonment

On the surface, these stats might look to corroborate contemporary opinions about modern concentration. One novelist noted not long back how simple it is to lose a individual's attention when it is fragmented by online networks and the 24-hour news. He stated: “Perhaps as individuals' focus periods shift the literature will have to change with them.” Yet as an individual who previously would persistently get through every book I started, I now consider it a individual choice to set aside a book that I'm not in the mood for.

Our Short Span and the Wealth of Options

I wouldn't believe that this practice is a result of a limited concentration – more accurately it stems from the awareness of time moving swiftly. I've always been struck by the monastic principle: “Place the end daily before your eyes.” One idea that we each have a just finite period on this planet was as horrifying to me as to everyone. However at what previous point in history have we ever had such direct availability to so many mind-blowing works of art, whenever we choose? A glut of treasures meets me in every bookstore and behind every screen, and I aim to be intentional about where I focus my energy. Could “DNF-ing” a book (shorthand in the publishing industry for Incomplete) be not just a indication of a poor intellect, but a thoughtful one?

Choosing for Understanding and Insight

Particularly at a time when book production (consequently, selection) is still dominated by a specific demographic and its concerns. While reading about people different from our own lives can help to develop the muscle for understanding, we also choose books to reflect on our personal experiences and position in the universe. Unless the works on the shelves more accurately reflect the backgrounds, lives and issues of prospective readers, it might be quite hard to hold their attention.

Contemporary Authorship and Audience Interest

Certainly, some authors are indeed skillfully crafting for the “modern focus”: the tweet-length style of selected recent novels, the tight fragments of different authors, and the short chapters of numerous modern titles are all a impressive demonstration for a more concise style and method. And there is an abundance of craft advice aimed at securing a audience: perfect that initial phrase, improve that opening chapter, raise the drama (further! further!) and, if crafting crime, introduce a victim on the opening. Such guidance is all good – a prospective agent, publisher or buyer will devote only a few valuable minutes choosing whether or not to proceed. It is little reason in being contrary, like the individual on a class I participated in who, when challenged about the storyline of their book, declared that “it all becomes clear about 75% of the into the story”. No novelist should put their audience through a sequence of difficult tasks in order to be understood.

Crafting to Be Clear and Giving Space

Yet I absolutely compose to be understood, as much as that is possible. On occasion that requires leading the consumer's attention, guiding them through the narrative beat by economical beat. At other times, I've discovered, comprehension demands time – and I must grant me (and other writers) the freedom of wandering, of adding depth, of deviating, until I find something meaningful. An influential thinker contends for the story developing innovative patterns and that, instead of the traditional dramatic arc, “different forms might help us envision innovative ways to make our narratives vital and real, continue producing our works novel”.

Change of the Novel and Current Mediums

In that sense, both perspectives align – the novel may have to evolve to fit the contemporary reader, as it has repeatedly accomplished since it originated in the 1700s (as we know it today). Perhaps, like earlier writers, future authors will revert to releasing in parts their novels in newspapers. The upcoming these authors may currently be sharing their content, part by part, on online platforms like those used by many of regular visitors. Genres evolve with the era and we should let them.

Beyond Short Focus

Yet let us not claim that every shifts are entirely because of shorter attention spans. If that were the case, short story collections and very short stories would be viewed far more {commercial|profitable|marketable