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This is somewhat awkward to confess, but here goes. A handful of titles rest next to my bed, every one partially consumed. On my smartphone, I'm midway through 36 audiobooks, which seems small alongside the nearly fifty ebooks I've left unfinished on my digital device. This does not count the expanding stack of pre-release versions beside my living room table, striving for blurbs, now that I work as a professional writer personally.

Starting with Persistent Completion to Purposeful Abandonment

On the surface, these numbers might look to confirm contemporary comments about modern attention spans. A writer observed not long back how simple it is to break a reader's concentration when it is fragmented by online networks and the 24-hour news. The author stated: “Maybe as readers' focus periods change the literature will have to change with them.” Yet as a person who once would persistently get through whatever novel I started, I now regard it a personal freedom to put down a story that I'm not enjoying.

Our Limited Time and the Wealth of Possibilities

I wouldn't feel that this practice is caused by a short focus – more accurately it stems from the sense of life slipping through my fingers. I've often been affected by the monastic principle: “Hold death each day before your eyes.” Another point that we each have a mere 4,000 weeks on this Earth was as sobering to me as to anyone else. And yet at what previous time in human history have we ever had such direct availability to so many mind-blowing masterpieces, whenever we choose? A surplus of treasures awaits me in each library and behind each digital platform, and I strive to be deliberate about where I channel my time. Is it possible “DNF-ing” a novel (term in the book world for Did Not Finish) be not a mark of a weak mind, but a selective one?

Reading for Empathy and Self-awareness

Notably at a time when book production (consequently, commissioning) is still led by a specific demographic and its issues. Although engaging with about people different from ourselves can help to strengthen the capacity for understanding, we furthermore select stories to reflect on our individual journeys and role in the universe. Before the titles on the shelves more accurately represent the backgrounds, realities and concerns of possible individuals, it might be extremely hard to maintain their interest.

Current Storytelling and Audience Interest

Naturally, some novelists are actually effectively writing for the “contemporary interest”: the tweet-length prose of selected recent books, the focused sections of different authors, and the brief sections of several modern titles are all a excellent showcase for a more concise approach and technique. Additionally there is plenty of writing tips aimed at capturing a audience: hone that first sentence, polish that beginning section, increase the stakes (further! further!) and, if crafting thriller, place a dead body on the opening. This suggestions is entirely sound – a possible representative, editor or reader will spend only a few limited minutes choosing whether or not to forge ahead. It is little reason in being obstinate, like the person on a class I participated in who, when questioned about the storyline of their manuscript, declared that “the meaning emerges about three-fourths of the through the book”. No novelist should force their audience through a series of 12 labours in order to be comprehended.

Creating to Be Clear and Giving Time

But I do create to be understood, as far as that is achievable. At times that needs leading the reader's attention, guiding them through the story step by economical step. At other times, I've realised, comprehension takes patience – and I must give myself (along with other authors) the freedom of meandering, of adding depth, of deviating, until I discover something true. One thinker makes the case for the novel discovering new forms and that, as opposed to the standard narrative arc, “other forms might assist us imagine novel approaches to craft our narratives alive and real, continue making our works novel”.

Evolution of the Novel and Modern Mediums

In that sense, both perspectives align – the novel may have to change to fit the today's reader, as it has constantly achieved since it began in the historical period (as we know it currently). It could be, like previous authors, coming writers will revert to serialising their works in publications. The next these writers may currently be releasing their content, chapter by chapter, on online services such as those visited by millions of regular users. Art forms shift with the era and we should allow them.

Not Just Short Concentration

Yet do not claim that any evolutions are completely because of shorter focus. Were that true, concise narrative compilations and flash fiction would be regarded considerably more {commercial|profitable|marketable