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It's slightly embarrassing to admit, but I'll say it. Several novels rest beside my bed, each partially finished. Inside my smartphone, I'm midway through 36 audiobooks, which seems small compared to the forty-six digital books I've left unfinished on my Kindle. The situation doesn't count the increasing collection of advance editions beside my living room table, vying for blurbs, now that I am a published novelist in my own right.

From Dogged Completion to Purposeful Abandonment

On the surface, these numbers might look to support recent thoughts about current concentration. A writer commented a short while ago how simple it is to distract a reader's focus when it is divided by online networks and the news cycle. He stated: “It could be as readers' concentration shift the literature will have to adjust with them.” However as someone who used to persistently finish every book I began, I now consider it a individual choice to put down a novel that I'm not in the mood for.

Life's Limited Span and the Glut of Possibilities

I do not think that this practice is due to a short concentration – more accurately it stems from the feeling of existence slipping through my fingers. I've always been impressed by the Benedictine maxim: “Hold mortality daily before your eyes.” One idea that we each have a mere finite period on this planet was as sobering to me as to everyone. However at what different time in human history have we ever had such direct availability to so many amazing creative works, whenever we want? A glut of riches meets me in each bookshop and on each digital platform, and I aim to be deliberate about where I direct my energy. Might “abandoning” a novel (shorthand in the literary community for Did Not Finish) be not just a indication of a limited intellect, but a thoughtful one?

Reading for Understanding and Reflection

Especially at a period when publishing (and therefore, commissioning) is still led by a certain demographic and its issues. Even though engaging with about individuals unlike ourselves can help to build the ability for compassion, we also choose books to think about our own lives and position in the world. Before the titles on the racks more fully depict the identities, stories and concerns of potential readers, it might be very challenging to hold their attention.

Modern Storytelling and Audience Attention

Naturally, some writers are skillfully creating for the “modern attention span”: the concise style of some modern novels, the focused sections of additional writers, and the short parts of various recent books are all a excellent showcase for a more concise form and style. Furthermore there is plenty of author guidance geared toward capturing a audience: perfect that first sentence, improve that start, increase the drama (higher! further!) and, if writing crime, put a mystery on the beginning. Such advice is all solid – a potential publisher, house or reader will devote only a a handful of valuable minutes determining whether or not to forge ahead. There is no benefit in being difficult, like the individual on a writing course I participated in who, when challenged about the narrative of their novel, stated that “the meaning emerges about 75% of the through the book”. No author should put their reader through a set of challenges in order to be understood.

Creating to Be Understood and Granting Time

Yet I do compose to be understood, as far as that is feasible. On occasion that requires leading the audience's hand, directing them through the plot point by succinct point. Occasionally, I've realised, understanding takes perseverance – and I must give me (and other creators) the permission of meandering, of layering, of straying, until I find something meaningful. A particular thinker contends for the fiction developing fresh structures and that, as opposed to the conventional narrative arc, “other patterns might help us conceive innovative ways to create our tales vital and authentic, keep creating our books fresh”.

Evolution of the Story and Current Formats

In that sense, both perspectives agree – the fiction may have to change to suit the contemporary reader, as it has continually achieved since it first emerged in the 1700s (as we know it now). Maybe, like earlier novelists, coming creators will revert to releasing in parts their books in publications. The next such writers may even now be releasing their writing, chapter by chapter, on digital platforms like those accessed by countless of monthly users. Genres change with the period and we should let them.

Not Just Brief Focus

However we should not assert that every changes are entirely because of limited focus. If that were the case, short story anthologies and micro tales would be considered much more {commercial|profitable|marketable