🔗 Share this article

This is somewhat awkward to admit, but here goes. A handful of titles sit beside my bed, each only partly consumed. Inside my smartphone, I'm midway through 36 audiobooks, which looks minor compared to the 46 Kindle titles I've set aside on my Kindle. This does not count the growing pile of pre-release versions next to my side table, striving for blurbs, now that I work as a published writer personally.

Starting with Determined Reading to Deliberate Setting Aside

At first glance, these figures might look to confirm recent thoughts about current concentration. An author noted recently how easy it is to distract a person's focus when it is divided by online networks and the 24-hour news. The author suggested: “Maybe as readers' attention spans change the fiction will have to adapt with them.” But as an individual who used to stubbornly complete any novel I picked up, I now consider it a individual choice to set aside a novel that I'm not in the mood for.

Life's Finite Duration and the Abundance of Choices

I wouldn't feel that this practice is caused by a short focus – rather more it relates to the feeling of existence passing quickly. I've always been impressed by the spiritual teaching: “Place death every day in view.” Another idea that we each have a mere 4,000 weeks on this world was as horrifying to me as to others. But at what different moment in human history have we ever had such direct entry to so many mind-blowing masterpieces, whenever we want? A wealth of riches greets me in each bookstore and on each digital platform, and I strive to be purposeful about where I direct my attention. Is it possible “abandoning” a story (term in the book world for Incomplete) be not just a indication of a poor mind, but a thoughtful one?

Choosing for Understanding and Insight

Notably at a time when publishing (consequently, acquisition) is still led by a particular group and its concerns. Although engaging with about people distinct from us can help to develop the ability for compassion, we furthermore choose books to think about our own journeys and position in the society. Until the works on the displays better reflect the backgrounds, lives and concerns of prospective readers, it might be quite challenging to keep their attention.

Modern Storytelling and Consumer Engagement

Certainly, some writers are indeed skillfully creating for the “modern interest”: the short prose of certain modern books, the tight sections of additional writers, and the short parts of various recent stories are all a excellent demonstration for a briefer approach and technique. And there is an abundance of writing advice aimed at grabbing a consumer: hone that initial phrase, enhance that start, elevate the stakes (higher! further!) and, if writing crime, put a dead body on the opening. This advice is completely sound – a prospective representative, editor or audience will devote only a few precious moments deciding whether or not to continue. There's no point in being obstinate, like the person on a writing course I attended who, when questioned about the plot of their manuscript, stated that “the meaning emerges about three-fourths of the way through”. No author should subject their audience through a series of challenges in order to be understood.

Writing to Be Understood and Granting Space

Yet I do create to be understood, as much as that is possible. At times that demands holding the audience's interest, guiding them through the plot beat by economical step. Occasionally, I've discovered, understanding demands time – and I must give myself (and other creators) the permission of meandering, of layering, of straying, until I find something true. An influential writer argues for the novel discovering new forms and that, rather than the conventional plot structure, “different forms might enable us envision novel ways to craft our tales dynamic and real, keep producing our books original”.

Change of the Novel and Current Mediums

Accordingly, the two opinions align – the fiction may have to evolve to suit the modern reader, as it has repeatedly done since it first emerged in the 1700s (in the form today). It could be, like earlier authors, tomorrow's creators will revert to serialising their novels in newspapers. The upcoming those creators may already be publishing their content, part by part, on web-based platforms such as those visited by millions of regular users. Art forms evolve with the times and we should permit them.

Not Just Short Attention Spans

Yet we should not claim that all changes are all because of shorter concentration. If that was so, brief fiction anthologies and flash fiction would be considered far more {commercial|profitable|marketable