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This is somewhat uncomfortable to reveal, but here goes. Several novels rest beside my bed, each partially finished. On my smartphone, I'm some distance through over three dozen audiobooks, which looks minor alongside the 46 ebooks I've left unfinished on my e-reader. This doesn't account for the growing collection of pre-release versions near my side table, competing for endorsements, now that I have become a professional author in my own right.

From Persistent Reading to Purposeful Setting Aside

On the surface, these numbers might look to corroborate recent comments about current focus. A writer observed not long back how simple it is to break a individual's focus when it is fragmented by digital platforms and the news cycle. He remarked: “Maybe as readers' attention spans change the fiction will have to adapt with them.” But as someone who once would persistently finish any novel I started, I now consider it a individual choice to stop reading a novel that I'm not enjoying.

Life's Finite Time and the Glut of Options

I wouldn't think that this tendency is caused by a limited attention span – more accurately it stems from the awareness of existence slipping through my fingers. I've always been struck by the spiritual principle: “Hold the end every day in mind.” One point that we each have a just finite period on this Earth was as sobering to me as to everyone. And yet at what other point in history have we ever had such instant access to so many mind-blowing masterpieces, at any moment we want? A glut of treasures meets me in any bookstore and within each device, and I aim to be purposeful about where I focus my time. Is it possible “DNF-ing” a novel (abbreviation in the literary community for Did Not Finish) be not just a mark of a poor intellect, but a discerning one?

Choosing for Understanding and Self-awareness

Notably at a era when book production (consequently, acquisition) is still controlled by a specific demographic and its issues. Although exploring about people unlike our own lives can help to build the ability for understanding, we furthermore choose books to think about our personal experiences and place in the universe. Before the works on the racks more accurately reflect the identities, realities and concerns of prospective readers, it might be quite challenging to keep their attention.

Current Authorship and Reader Interest

Certainly, some writers are successfully crafting for the “contemporary attention span”: the short writing of certain modern books, the compact pieces of additional writers, and the quick chapters of various contemporary stories are all a impressive showcase for a shorter approach and method. Additionally there is no shortage of craft advice designed for securing a consumer: perfect that initial phrase, improve that start, increase the stakes (higher! further!) and, if writing mystery, introduce a dead body on the first page. Such advice is all good – a possible agent, publisher or buyer will devote only a few valuable moments determining whether or not to continue. There's no point in being contrary, like the individual on a writing course I participated in who, when questioned about the narrative of their book, stated that “it all becomes clear about three-fourths of the into the story”. Not a single writer should put their reader through a sequence of 12 labours in order to be grasped.

Writing to Be Understood and Granting Space

Yet I certainly write to be clear, as to the extent as that is achievable. On occasion that needs holding the reader's attention, steering them through the story step by succinct step. Sometimes, I've discovered, understanding requires time – and I must give me (along with other writers) the freedom of exploring, of building, of digressing, until I find something meaningful. A particular thinker argues for the novel finding innovative patterns and that, instead of the standard narrative arc, “different structures might assist us imagine novel ways to make our tales alive and true, persist in producing our books original”.

Transformation of the Book and Modern Mediums

Accordingly, the two viewpoints converge – the novel may have to adapt to suit the today's reader, as it has constantly achieved since it began in the 18th century (in the form now). It could be, like past novelists, tomorrow's authors will return to publishing incrementally their works in periodicals. The next those authors may even now be sharing their work, part by part, on web-based platforms like those used by countless of monthly readers. Creative mediums evolve with the times and we should allow them.

Not Just Limited Concentration

However we should not claim that any changes are entirely because of limited concentration. If that were the case, concise narrative collections and micro tales would be considered much more {commercial|profitable|marketable