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This is a bit embarrassing to reveal, but here goes. Several novels sit by my bed, all only partly read. On my phone, I'm partway through over three dozen audiobooks, which pales next to the forty-six ebooks I've abandoned on my digital device. This doesn't include the expanding pile of advance copies near my side table, striving for blurbs, now that I work as a published author personally.

Starting with Dogged Finishing to Deliberate Setting Aside

Initially, these numbers might look to confirm recently expressed comments about modern focus. An author noted not long back how easy it is to break a individual's concentration when it is fragmented by social media and the 24-hour news. He stated: “Maybe as readers' concentration evolve the literature will have to adapt with them.” However as someone who once would persistently finish whatever title I started, I now regard it a individual choice to set aside a story that I'm not connecting with.

Our Short Time and the Wealth of Choices

I wouldn't think that this tendency is caused by a brief concentration – more accurately it comes from the feeling of time slipping through my fingers. I've always been struck by the monastic teaching: “Hold death each day in mind.” A different idea that we each have a mere limited time on this planet was as shocking to me as to anyone else. However at what other time in human history have we ever had such immediate access to so many amazing works of art, whenever we want? A glut of treasures meets me in each library and within each digital platform, and I strive to be intentional about where I channel my time. Might “DNF-ing” a novel (term in the book world for Unfinished) be not a sign of a weak mind, but a discerning one?

Selecting for Understanding and Reflection

Particularly at a era when publishing (consequently, acquisition) is still led by a specific social class and its concerns. Even though engaging with about individuals unlike ourselves can help to build the ability for empathy, we furthermore choose books to reflect on our personal lives and role in the society. Until the books on the racks more accurately reflect the experiences, realities and concerns of prospective readers, it might be very hard to keep their focus.

Contemporary Storytelling and Audience Attention

Naturally, some novelists are indeed effectively creating for the “modern attention span”: the short prose of some current works, the compact fragments of additional writers, and the quick chapters of several contemporary stories are all a wonderful example for a more concise approach and method. Furthermore there is plenty of writing advice designed for securing a audience: hone that opening line, polish that beginning section, increase the drama (more! further!) and, if creating mystery, place a mystery on the first page. Such guidance is completely solid – a potential publisher, publisher or audience will spend only a a handful of limited moments choosing whether or not to continue. There is no benefit in being contrary, like the individual on a workshop I joined who, when challenged about the storyline of their book, announced that “it all becomes clear about three-quarters of the way through”. No author should put their audience through a series of 12 labours in order to be understood.

Crafting to Be Accessible and Allowing Space

And I certainly compose to be comprehended, as much as that is feasible. At times that needs holding the consumer's interest, steering them through the story point by succinct step. Sometimes, I've understood, comprehension takes patience – and I must grant me (and other authors) the freedom of exploring, of layering, of digressing, until I discover something true. An influential thinker argues for the story finding new forms and that, as opposed to the traditional dramatic arc, “other patterns might help us conceive innovative approaches to create our narratives vital and real, continue producing our novels fresh”.

Evolution of the Story and Contemporary Mediums

Accordingly, each viewpoints align – the novel may have to adapt to accommodate the modern reader, as it has constantly achieved since it originated in the 1700s (in its current incarnation today). Perhaps, like earlier writers, future creators will revert to serialising their books in newspapers. The next such creators may already be sharing their writing, chapter by chapter, on web-based sites such as those visited by countless of frequent users. Creative mediums evolve with the times and we should let them.

Not Just Short Focus

Yet we should not claim that all evolutions are entirely because of reduced focus. If that were the case, short story collections and micro tales would be viewed much more {commercial|profitable|marketable