It's somewhat uncomfortable to admit, but I'll say it. Several books sit beside my bed, each only partly consumed. Inside my smartphone, I'm partway through over three dozen listening titles, which seems small alongside the 46 ebooks I've abandoned on my e-reader. That does not account for the growing collection of pre-release copies next to my side table, vying for blurbs, now that I work as a published writer myself.
Starting with Dogged Finishing to Purposeful Letting Go
Initially, these figures might seem to support contemporary comments about today's concentration. One novelist noted not long back how effortless it is to distract a person's focus when it is scattered by digital platforms and the 24-hour news. He remarked: “Perhaps as people's focus periods shift the literature will have to adjust with them.” Yet as a person who once would doggedly get through every novel I picked up, I now consider it a personal freedom to stop reading a novel that I'm not in the mood for.
Our Limited Duration and the Wealth of Possibilities
I don't feel that this practice is a result of a brief focus – instead it stems from the sense of time passing quickly. I've always been impressed by the Benedictine principle: “Keep the end each day before your eyes.” Another reminder that we each have a only finite period on this world was as sobering to me as to anyone else. However at what other point in history have we ever had such direct availability to so many amazing masterpieces, at any moment we want? A wealth of riches awaits me in every bookshop and on any screen, and I aim to be deliberate about where I direct my attention. Might “abandoning” a story (term in the literary community for Did Not Finish) be not just a indication of a weak intellect, but a selective one?
Reading for Empathy and Insight
Particularly at a period when book production (consequently, selection) is still controlled by a certain demographic and its quandaries. Although reading about people distinct from ourselves can help to develop the ability for empathy, we furthermore choose books to think about our own lives and position in the universe. Before the works on the shelves more accurately represent the experiences, realities and interests of possible individuals, it might be very hard to keep their interest.
Current Writing and Audience Attention
Of course, some authors are effectively writing for the “modern interest”: the short style of certain modern novels, the tight sections of others, and the short sections of various contemporary titles are all a impressive example for a briefer form and technique. Additionally there is an abundance of author guidance designed for capturing a reader: perfect that initial phrase, enhance that opening chapter, raise the tension (further! more!) and, if writing thriller, put a victim on the first page. That guidance is all good – a possible agent, publisher or audience will use only a several precious seconds choosing whether or not to continue. There is little reason in being difficult, like the writer on a writing course I joined who, when questioned about the storyline of their book, stated that “the meaning emerges about three-quarters of the way through”. Not a single writer should put their audience through a series of difficult tasks in order to be grasped.
Writing to Be Accessible and Giving Time
And I do create to be comprehended, as much as that is feasible. At times that needs guiding the reader's attention, guiding them through the story beat by economical point. Sometimes, I've understood, understanding requires patience – and I must give myself (along with other authors) the permission of exploring, of adding depth, of deviating, until I hit upon something true. An influential author contends for the story developing new forms and that, instead of the standard dramatic arc, “different structures might enable us conceive novel methods to craft our tales vital and authentic, continue creating our works novel”.
Change of the Novel and Current Mediums
From that perspective, each perspectives align – the fiction may have to evolve to accommodate the contemporary consumer, as it has repeatedly achieved since it originated in the 1700s (in its current incarnation today). Maybe, like past authors, tomorrow's writers will go back to serialising their novels in newspapers. The future such writers may even now be publishing their work, section by section, on web-based sites such as those used by many of frequent visitors. Creative mediums shift with the times and we should permit them.
More Than Short Concentration
But let us not claim that all evolutions are completely because of shorter concentration. If that were the case, short story anthologies and flash fiction would be considered much more {commercial|profitable|marketable
