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It's a bit embarrassing to admit, but here goes. A handful of titles rest next to my bed, each incompletely consumed. On my mobile device, I'm some distance through over three dozen audiobooks, which looks minor next to the nearly fifty Kindle titles I've left unfinished on my Kindle. The situation does not include the increasing collection of advance editions next to my side table, striving for praises, now that I work as a published novelist myself.

Beginning with Persistent Completion to Intentional Letting Go

At first glance, these stats might look to support recently expressed opinions about current focus. An author noted not long back how easy it is to lose a person's focus when it is fragmented by digital platforms and the news cycle. The author suggested: “Perhaps as individuals' focus periods change the literature will have to change with them.” Yet as a person who used to doggedly get through whatever book I picked up, I now consider it a personal freedom to put down a novel that I'm not in the mood for.

Life's Finite Duration and the Abundance of Choices

I do not feel that this habit is due to a limited attention span – more accurately it relates to the feeling of existence passing quickly. I've always been struck by the spiritual teaching: “Keep the end each day in view.” One idea that we each have a only finite period on this Earth was as horrifying to me as to others. And yet at what other point in history have we ever had such immediate entry to so many incredible works of art, anytime we desire? A glut of treasures meets me in any library and within each device, and I want to be intentional about where I focus my time. Might “DNF-ing” a book (abbreviation in the book world for Incomplete) be rather than a mark of a weak mind, but a discerning one?

Reading for Empathy and Insight

Notably at a era when book production (and thus, commissioning) is still dominated by a particular demographic and its quandaries. Although exploring about characters unlike us can help to develop the capacity for compassion, we additionally choose books to reflect on our individual journeys and role in the world. Until the books on the shelves more accurately reflect the backgrounds, lives and interests of prospective individuals, it might be quite challenging to keep their interest.

Contemporary Storytelling and Audience Engagement

Certainly, some authors are actually skillfully creating for the “today's attention span”: the short writing of some recent novels, the focused sections of different authors, and the brief sections of various recent stories are all a wonderful demonstration for a more concise style and method. Additionally there is an abundance of craft tips aimed at grabbing a reader: refine that first sentence, polish that beginning section, raise the stakes (further! higher!) and, if creating crime, place a dead body on the beginning. That advice is all solid – a prospective representative, house or audience will devote only a several valuable moments determining whether or not to continue. It is little reason in being contrary, like the individual on a workshop I attended who, when questioned about the storyline of their novel, announced that “it all becomes clear about 75% of the through the book”. No writer should put their reader through a set of challenges in order to be understood.

Crafting to Be Understood and Granting Space

Yet I do write to be understood, as much as that is achievable. At times that requires guiding the reader's hand, directing them through the plot point by economical beat. Occasionally, I've discovered, comprehension takes perseverance – and I must give my own self (as well as other writers) the freedom of exploring, of layering, of deviating, until I hit upon something true. An influential writer argues for the story discovering fresh structures and that, as opposed to the traditional dramatic arc, “other forms might enable us envision innovative ways to make our narratives alive and authentic, continue creating our novels novel”.

Change of the Book and Modern Platforms

From that perspective, both viewpoints align – the novel may have to evolve to fit the contemporary audience, as it has repeatedly accomplished since it began in the 1700s (in its current incarnation today). Maybe, like past novelists, tomorrow's writers will revert to releasing in parts their novels in publications. The next such authors may already be sharing their work, part by part, on web-based sites including those visited by millions of frequent visitors. Art forms evolve with the times and we should allow them.

Not Just Brief Focus

Yet we should not claim that every shifts are all because of reduced focus. Were that true, brief fiction collections and flash fiction would be regarded far more {commercial|profitable|marketable