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It's a bit awkward to reveal, but here goes. A handful of books wait beside my bed, each incompletely finished. Inside my smartphone, I'm some distance through 36 audiobooks, which seems small compared to the nearly fifty ebooks I've abandoned on my digital device. That doesn't count the increasing collection of advance editions near my side table, vying for blurbs, now that I am a established writer myself.

Starting with Determined Reading to Purposeful Setting Aside

At first glance, these figures might seem to support recently expressed comments about today's attention spans. A writer noted not long back how effortless it is to break a reader's concentration when it is divided by digital platforms and the constant updates. He remarked: “Maybe as readers' concentration evolve the literature will have to adapt with them.” But as a person who previously would stubbornly complete every title I began, I now regard it a personal freedom to put down a story that I'm not in the mood for.

Our Finite Duration and the Glut of Choices

I wouldn't believe that this habit is caused by a brief concentration – more accurately it relates to the sense of existence slipping through my fingers. I've consistently been struck by the monastic maxim: “Place death every day before your eyes.” A different reminder that we each have a just 4,000 weeks on this Earth was as shocking to me as to everyone. And yet at what different time in human history have we ever had such instant access to so many amazing works of art, whenever we choose? A glut of options greets me in each bookstore and within any digital platform, and I strive to be deliberate about where I direct my time. Might “DNF-ing” a story (shorthand in the publishing industry for Did Not Finish) be not a indication of a weak focus, but a thoughtful one?

Reading for Connection and Reflection

Especially at a time when the industry (and thus, acquisition) is still controlled by a certain social class and its concerns. While exploring about people unlike ourselves can help to strengthen the ability for empathy, we also read to consider our own experiences and place in the universe. Unless the books on the displays more fully reflect the experiences, realities and concerns of potential individuals, it might be quite difficult to maintain their focus.

Contemporary Storytelling and Audience Attention

Of course, some writers are skillfully writing for the “modern focus”: the concise prose of certain recent works, the focused pieces of different authors, and the brief sections of various modern books are all a wonderful example for a shorter style and method. Additionally there is no shortage of author tips aimed at securing a consumer: hone that initial phrase, improve that beginning section, elevate the stakes (higher! higher!) and, if creating thriller, put a mystery on the first page. This guidance is entirely solid – a potential agent, publisher or buyer will devote only a several precious seconds determining whether or not to forge ahead. There is little reason in being difficult, like the individual on a workshop I attended who, when questioned about the plot of their manuscript, stated that “everything makes sense about 75% of the way through”. Not a single writer should subject their reader through a series of challenges in order to be understood.

Creating to Be Clear and Allowing Patience

But I certainly write to be comprehended, as far as that is achievable. Sometimes that requires guiding the consumer's attention, steering them through the narrative step by succinct point. Sometimes, I've understood, insight requires patience – and I must give me (and other writers) the grace of exploring, of building, of straying, until I find something meaningful. An influential thinker argues for the fiction developing innovative patterns and that, as opposed to the conventional narrative arc, “other forms might enable us conceive novel approaches to craft our tales vital and true, persist in creating our works novel”.

Change of the Story and Modern Formats

In that sense, both opinions align – the story may have to evolve to suit the contemporary consumer, as it has continually achieved since it first emerged in the historical period (in its current incarnation currently). Perhaps, like previous novelists, future writers will return to releasing in parts their books in publications. The next such authors may already be sharing their work, section by section, on web-based sites like those visited by many of regular readers. Art forms shift with the period and we should allow them.

Beyond Brief Focus

However do not assert that every evolutions are completely because of reduced attention spans. If that were the case, concise narrative compilations and micro tales would be regarded much more {commercial|profitable|marketable