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This is a bit awkward to confess, but let me explain. Several titles rest next to my bed, each incompletely finished. On my phone, I'm partway through over three dozen audio novels, which pales next to the 46 ebooks I've set aside on my Kindle. The situation does not account for the expanding stack of early editions next to my living room table, striving for blurbs, now that I am a established novelist personally.

Beginning with Dogged Finishing to Intentional Letting Go

Initially, these stats might look to corroborate recent opinions about current attention spans. A writer noted not long back how easy it is to lose a individual's concentration when it is fragmented by digital platforms and the 24-hour news. He remarked: “Maybe as people's concentration shift the writing will have to adjust with them.” Yet as an individual who once would persistently complete every title I picked up, I now regard it a personal freedom to stop reading a novel that I'm not in the mood for.

The Finite Span and the Abundance of Choices

I don't believe that this tendency is due to a limited concentration – more accurately it comes from the awareness of life moving swiftly. I've consistently been impressed by the Benedictine principle: “Keep mortality every day in view.” A different point that we each have a just limited time on this planet was as horrifying to me as to everyone. However at what previous moment in human history have we ever had such instant availability to so many amazing creative works, at any moment we want? A glut of treasures awaits me in any bookshop and on every device, and I aim to be purposeful about where I focus my time. Might “abandoning” a story (abbreviation in the book world for Unfinished) be not a mark of a limited focus, but a selective one?

Selecting for Empathy and Reflection

Especially at a era when book production (and therefore, acquisition) is still led by a certain group and its concerns. Even though reading about individuals different from us can help to strengthen the ability for understanding, we also read to think about our personal lives and role in the world. Before the works on the racks better reflect the experiences, lives and interests of prospective readers, it might be very challenging to keep their attention.

Contemporary Storytelling and Audience Engagement

Certainly, some authors are effectively crafting for the “today's attention span”: the tweet-length prose of certain current books, the compact fragments of different authors, and the brief chapters of various modern titles are all a excellent example for a more concise approach and technique. And there is no shortage of writing guidance geared toward capturing a consumer: perfect that first sentence, improve that opening chapter, elevate the drama (more! further!) and, if crafting crime, introduce a dead body on the beginning. This guidance is completely sound – a prospective publisher, editor or buyer will devote only a a handful of limited minutes determining whether or not to continue. There's little reason in being difficult, like the writer on a class I participated in who, when confronted about the plot of their novel, stated that “it all becomes clear about three-quarters of the through the book”. No writer should force their reader through a set of difficult tasks in order to be grasped.

Crafting to Be Clear and Granting Space

But I do create to be understood, as far as that is achievable. Sometimes that requires leading the reader's interest, directing them through the plot step by economical point. Sometimes, I've realised, insight takes perseverance – and I must allow my own self (along with other creators) the freedom of exploring, of adding depth, of straying, until I hit upon something true. An influential thinker makes the case for the story finding innovative patterns and that, instead of the standard dramatic arc, “alternative structures might enable us envision novel methods to create our tales dynamic and real, continue making our books novel”.

Transformation of the Novel and Modern Formats

Accordingly, the two perspectives agree – the fiction may have to adapt to fit the modern audience, as it has repeatedly achieved since it first emerged in the 18th century (in its current incarnation currently). It could be, like earlier writers, coming writers will go back to releasing in parts their novels in publications. The future those creators may already be sharing their work, part by part, on digital sites including those used by many of frequent visitors. Genres shift with the times and we should permit them.

Not Just Limited Focus

However we should not say that every shifts are all because of limited concentration. Were that true, short story anthologies and flash fiction would be considered considerably more {commercial|profitable|marketable