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This is a bit embarrassing to confess, but I'll say it. A handful of novels sit beside my bed, each partially consumed. Inside my phone, I'm midway through over three dozen listening titles, which seems small alongside the forty-six Kindle titles I've set aside on my e-reader. This fails to count the growing collection of advance versions near my side table, vying for praises, now that I work as a established writer myself.

Beginning with Dogged Finishing to Intentional Setting Aside

At first glance, these numbers might seem to support recently expressed comments about today's attention spans. One novelist noted not long back how simple it is to lose a reader's concentration when it is scattered by online networks and the constant updates. They remarked: “It could be as readers' focus periods change the literature will have to adjust with them.” However as someone who previously would persistently finish every book I started, I now consider it a human right to set aside a story that I'm not enjoying.

The Limited Time and the Abundance of Choices

I wouldn't believe that this practice is a result of a short concentration – rather more it comes from the awareness of time slipping through my fingers. I've consistently been struck by the monastic principle: “Place mortality daily in view.” A different idea that we each have a just 4,000 weeks on this world was as horrifying to me as to everyone. But at what other point in history have we ever had such direct access to so many incredible creative works, at any moment we want? A wealth of options greets me in every bookstore and on every screen, and I aim to be purposeful about where I channel my energy. Might “abandoning” a story (abbreviation in the book world for Did Not Finish) be not a indication of a weak intellect, but a discerning one?

Selecting for Connection and Reflection

Particularly at a time when book production (and thus, acquisition) is still controlled by a certain social class and its concerns. While reading about characters distinct from our own lives can help to build the ability for compassion, we also choose books to reflect on our personal experiences and place in the society. Unless the works on the shelves more fully depict the experiences, stories and concerns of prospective individuals, it might be quite hard to keep their focus.

Contemporary Writing and Consumer Interest

Certainly, some authors are successfully crafting for the “today's attention span”: the concise writing of selected modern works, the focused fragments of different authors, and the short sections of several contemporary books are all a impressive showcase for a briefer form and technique. Furthermore there is an abundance of writing advice aimed at securing a consumer: perfect that opening line, polish that start, increase the tension (higher! more!) and, if creating mystery, put a mystery on the first page. That suggestions is all solid – a potential representative, house or audience will use only a few precious minutes choosing whether or not to continue. There is no benefit in being difficult, like the individual on a class I participated in who, when challenged about the plot of their book, stated that “everything makes sense about 75% of the way through”. No novelist should put their audience through a sequence of difficult tasks in order to be comprehended.

Writing to Be Accessible and Granting Time

And I absolutely create to be clear, as far as that is achievable. At times that demands leading the reader's interest, directing them through the story beat by economical beat. Occasionally, I've discovered, understanding takes patience – and I must give my own self (and other creators) the permission of meandering, of layering, of straying, until I find something authentic. An influential author argues for the story discovering new forms and that, as opposed to the standard narrative arc, “alternative structures might help us conceive novel ways to craft our stories dynamic and true, keep making our novels original”.

Evolution of the Story and Contemporary Formats

In that sense, the two viewpoints align – the story may have to evolve to accommodate the contemporary reader, as it has constantly accomplished since it began in the 1700s (as we know it currently). Perhaps, like previous authors, coming writers will revert to releasing in parts their works in periodicals. The upcoming such writers may currently be releasing their writing, part by part, on web-based platforms like those accessed by millions of monthly visitors. Genres change with the times and we should permit them.

Beyond Short Attention Spans

Yet let us not claim that all evolutions are entirely because of shorter attention spans. If that was so, concise narrative compilations and flash fiction would be considered far more {commercial|profitable|marketable