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It's a bit uncomfortable to admit, but I'll say it. Five books wait next to my bed, every one partially consumed. Inside my phone, I'm partway through over three dozen audiobooks, which pales next to the nearly fifty ebooks I've set aside on my e-reader. The situation fails to count the expanding pile of advance editions next to my coffee table, vying for praises, now that I work as a published novelist personally.

From Dogged Reading to Intentional Letting Go

Initially, these stats might appear to corroborate recently expressed opinions about current concentration. An author noted recently how effortless it is to lose a reader's focus when it is scattered by online networks and the news cycle. The author remarked: “Maybe as readers' focus periods shift the writing will have to adapt with them.” However as someone who once would persistently get through whatever novel I picked up, I now consider it a human right to stop reading a book that I'm not connecting with.

The Limited Duration and the Glut of Choices

I don't believe that this practice is a result of a short focus – more accurately it comes from the sense of time slipping through my fingers. I've always been affected by the Benedictine teaching: “Keep mortality daily before your eyes.” One reminder that we each have a just finite period on this planet was as shocking to me as to everyone. And yet at what other point in our past have we ever had such immediate entry to so many mind-blowing works of art, whenever we desire? A surplus of options meets me in any library and behind each device, and I strive to be intentional about where I direct my attention. Could “DNF-ing” a story (shorthand in the literary community for Did Not Finish) be not just a sign of a limited intellect, but a discerning one?

Reading for Connection and Reflection

Especially at a era when the industry (and therefore, acquisition) is still dominated by a specific group and its issues. Although reading about characters distinct from our own lives can help to build the capacity for empathy, we also select stories to reflect on our individual lives and position in the world. Before the works on the displays better represent the backgrounds, realities and interests of potential audiences, it might be extremely difficult to maintain their attention.

Current Authorship and Consumer Engagement

Of course, some authors are actually successfully crafting for the “contemporary attention span”: the tweet-length style of selected modern works, the focused fragments of others, and the short chapters of numerous contemporary stories are all a impressive example for a more concise style and style. And there is an abundance of writing guidance designed for grabbing a audience: refine that opening line, enhance that beginning section, elevate the stakes (further! more!) and, if creating crime, introduce a victim on the beginning. Such suggestions is all sound – a potential representative, publisher or reader will devote only a several precious minutes determining whether or not to continue. There's no benefit in being difficult, like the person on a workshop I joined who, when confronted about the narrative of their book, stated that “everything makes sense about three-fourths of the way through”. No author should subject their audience through a set of difficult tasks in order to be comprehended.

Crafting to Be Understood and Giving Space

And I do compose to be comprehended, as far as that is possible. At times that demands holding the consumer's interest, steering them through the narrative beat by succinct point. Occasionally, I've understood, comprehension demands time – and I must grant myself (along with other authors) the permission of exploring, of building, of deviating, until I find something true. A particular author contends for the novel finding new forms and that, rather than the conventional plot structure, “alternative patterns might enable us imagine new approaches to make our tales alive and real, keep making our novels original”.

Evolution of the Story and Current Formats

In that sense, each opinions align – the novel may have to adapt to suit the contemporary consumer, as it has repeatedly achieved since it originated in the 1700s (in the form now). Maybe, like earlier writers, coming creators will revert to releasing in parts their novels in publications. The next such authors may currently be sharing their work, chapter by chapter, on online platforms such as those accessed by countless of frequent readers. Genres change with the times and we should let them.

More Than Brief Concentration

But we should not claim that all evolutions are entirely because of limited focus. If that was so, short story compilations and micro tales would be viewed far more {commercial|profitable|marketable