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This is somewhat embarrassing to reveal, but I'll say it. Several books wait beside my bed, every one only partly finished. Inside my mobile device, I'm midway through over three dozen listening titles, which seems small alongside the forty-six Kindle titles I've left unfinished on my Kindle. This fails to account for the growing pile of advance copies next to my side table, vying for blurbs, now that I work as a professional writer myself.

From Determined Finishing to Intentional Letting Go

Initially, these numbers might appear to support contemporary comments about today's concentration. One novelist noted recently how effortless it is to distract a person's concentration when it is fragmented by online networks and the 24-hour news. He suggested: “It could be as people's focus periods shift the fiction will have to change with them.” But as an individual who once would persistently finish every title I began, I now regard it a personal freedom to stop reading a book that I'm not connecting with.

Life's Finite Duration and the Abundance of Choices

I wouldn't feel that this habit is a result of a short attention span – rather more it comes from the feeling of time slipping through my fingers. I've often been struck by the spiritual maxim: “Keep death daily in view.” One reminder that we each have a only finite period on this world was as sobering to me as to everyone. And yet at what other moment in history have we ever had such instant entry to so many mind-blowing creative works, at any moment we choose? A wealth of treasures greets me in each library and on any screen, and I aim to be intentional about where I focus my time. Might “not finishing” a novel (abbreviation in the book world for Did Not Finish) be rather than a indication of a weak intellect, but a selective one?

Reading for Understanding and Reflection

Particularly at a period when publishing (and thus, acquisition) is still controlled by a specific demographic and its quandaries. Even though engaging with about individuals unlike our own lives can help to build the muscle for understanding, we additionally read to reflect on our own lives and position in the society. Until the books on the racks more fully reflect the experiences, stories and interests of potential audiences, it might be extremely difficult to hold their attention.

Contemporary Writing and Reader Attention

Naturally, some writers are indeed effectively writing for the “contemporary interest”: the tweet-length writing of certain current works, the compact pieces of others, and the short parts of numerous recent titles are all a wonderful example for a shorter approach and style. And there is no shortage of writing tips designed for capturing a consumer: refine that first sentence, polish that opening chapter, increase the drama (higher! more!) and, if writing crime, place a dead body on the opening. That advice is completely good – a potential agent, editor or buyer will devote only a few precious moments choosing whether or not to forge ahead. There is little reason in being contrary, like the individual on a workshop I attended who, when questioned about the storyline of their novel, announced that “everything makes sense about three-fourths of the through the book”. No writer should subject their audience through a sequence of difficult tasks in order to be understood.

Writing to Be Clear and Allowing Patience

But I certainly create to be comprehended, as to the extent as that is possible. Sometimes that requires guiding the consumer's hand, directing them through the narrative point by economical beat. At other times, I've realised, comprehension demands patience – and I must grant me (as well as other authors) the grace of meandering, of layering, of digressing, until I hit upon something authentic. An influential thinker argues for the novel finding fresh structures and that, instead of the conventional narrative arc, “different structures might enable us envision innovative methods to make our tales dynamic and real, continue creating our novels original”.

Change of the Novel and Modern Formats

From that perspective, both perspectives converge – the novel may have to adapt to fit the today's consumer, as it has repeatedly achieved since it first emerged in the historical period (as we know it currently). Perhaps, like previous authors, tomorrow's creators will go back to publishing incrementally their novels in publications. The next those authors may even now be publishing their content, part by part, on online services like those used by millions of monthly users. Genres shift with the era and we should let them.

Beyond Short Concentration

However let us not say that every evolutions are entirely because of limited attention spans. If that were the case, brief fiction anthologies and flash fiction would be viewed much more {commercial|profitable|marketable