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It's a bit uncomfortable to reveal, but I'll say it. A handful of titles sit beside my bed, all partially read. Within my smartphone, I'm some distance through over three dozen audiobooks, which pales next to the forty-six ebooks I've abandoned on my digital device. This fails to account for the expanding collection of advance editions near my side table, striving for endorsements, now that I have become a professional writer myself.

Beginning with Determined Finishing to Purposeful Setting Aside

On the surface, these numbers might appear to support contemporary thoughts about current concentration. A writer noted recently how simple it is to distract a person's attention when it is divided by social media and the news cycle. He remarked: “Perhaps as readers' concentration change the literature will have to adapt with them.” Yet as someone who once would stubbornly finish whatever book I began, I now view it a personal freedom to set aside a story that I'm not in the mood for.

Life's Short Time and the Abundance of Choices

I wouldn't feel that this practice is a result of a brief concentration – more accurately it relates to the sense of life slipping through my fingers. I've often been impressed by the Benedictine maxim: “Place death each day in view.” One point that we each have a only finite period on this world was as sobering to me as to everyone. And yet at what other point in human history have we ever had such direct availability to so many amazing masterpieces, whenever we want? A surplus of options greets me in every bookstore and behind each device, and I strive to be purposeful about where I channel my attention. Might “not finishing” a story (abbreviation in the publishing industry for Unfinished) be not just a sign of a limited focus, but a discerning one?

Reading for Empathy and Reflection

Especially at a time when the industry (and thus, commissioning) is still dominated by a specific social class and its quandaries. Although exploring about people different from our own lives can help to build the muscle for understanding, we also select stories to reflect on our own journeys and place in the society. Until the books on the shelves more accurately depict the identities, lives and interests of possible individuals, it might be extremely difficult to hold their focus.

Current Authorship and Reader Attention

Of course, some authors are actually skillfully crafting for the “today's interest”: the tweet-length prose of certain recent works, the focused sections of different authors, and the brief chapters of various modern books are all a wonderful example for a shorter approach and method. Furthermore there is no shortage of craft tips geared toward grabbing a consumer: hone that opening line, enhance that start, increase the stakes (further! further!) and, if writing mystery, introduce a mystery on the first page. That suggestions is all sound – a possible publisher, editor or reader will devote only a a handful of limited seconds determining whether or not to proceed. There's little reason in being difficult, like the person on a workshop I attended who, when challenged about the storyline of their novel, announced that “it all becomes clear about 75% of the into the story”. Not a single author should put their audience through a series of challenges in order to be understood.

Crafting to Be Clear and Allowing Time

Yet I do create to be clear, as much as that is achievable. On occasion that requires guiding the reader's interest, steering them through the plot step by economical point. Occasionally, I've realised, understanding requires patience – and I must grant my own self (as well as other authors) the permission of exploring, of layering, of deviating, until I hit upon something true. A particular author makes the case for the story finding new forms and that, instead of the conventional narrative arc, “other patterns might enable us imagine novel ways to craft our tales dynamic and true, persist in producing our books novel”.

Transformation of the Book and Current Formats

From that perspective, both opinions converge – the fiction may have to adapt to accommodate the contemporary audience, as it has repeatedly done since it first emerged in the 18th century (in the form now). Perhaps, like previous writers, coming writers will revert to serialising their books in periodicals. The future those creators may currently be sharing their content, chapter by chapter, on online platforms including those visited by countless of frequent visitors. Creative mediums evolve with the times and we should allow them.

Beyond Limited Attention Spans

Yet let us not claim that every changes are entirely because of shorter focus. Were that true, concise narrative compilations and micro tales would be regarded much more {commercial|profitable|marketable