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This is slightly uncomfortable to reveal, but let me explain. Five books rest next to my bed, every one partially consumed. Inside my phone, I'm some distance through thirty-six audio novels, which pales compared to the nearly fifty digital books I've left unfinished on my e-reader. That doesn't account for the expanding pile of advance copies next to my side table, competing for blurbs, now that I am a published writer personally.

Starting with Persistent Completion to Purposeful Letting Go

At first glance, these stats might look to confirm recently expressed opinions about today's focus. One novelist commented not long back how simple it is to distract a person's concentration when it is fragmented by online networks and the constant updates. The author suggested: “It could be as people's focus periods shift the fiction will have to adapt with them.” But as an individual who previously would doggedly complete every novel I started, I now view it a personal freedom to put down a story that I'm not in the mood for.

Our Short Duration and the Glut of Possibilities

I don't feel that this tendency is due to a short focus – more accurately it relates to the feeling of life slipping through my fingers. I've consistently been affected by the Benedictine principle: “Hold death each day before your eyes.” A different idea that we each have a just limited time on this planet was as sobering to me as to others. But at what other point in our past have we ever had such immediate availability to so many mind-blowing creative works, at any moment we choose? A surplus of riches awaits me in any bookshop and within each device, and I strive to be purposeful about where I channel my attention. Might “DNF-ing” a novel (abbreviation in the publishing industry for Incomplete) be not a mark of a poor mind, but a discerning one?

Reading for Empathy and Insight

Notably at a period when the industry (consequently, acquisition) is still controlled by a particular social class and its quandaries. Although reading about characters unlike our own lives can help to build the ability for compassion, we also read to consider our own lives and position in the universe. Until the books on the displays more fully reflect the experiences, stories and issues of prospective readers, it might be extremely hard to maintain their interest.

Contemporary Authorship and Consumer Interest

Naturally, some writers are actually successfully creating for the “today's focus”: the short style of certain recent books, the compact pieces of additional writers, and the brief chapters of numerous contemporary stories are all a wonderful showcase for a shorter style and method. And there is an abundance of writing guidance aimed at securing a reader: refine that initial phrase, polish that beginning section, raise the tension (higher! further!) and, if crafting crime, put a mystery on the beginning. That suggestions is entirely sound – a possible agent, publisher or reader will use only a few precious minutes choosing whether or not to forge ahead. There's little reason in being difficult, like the individual on a writing course I joined who, when challenged about the narrative of their manuscript, declared that “it all becomes clear about three-fourths of the way through”. Not a single novelist should force their reader through a set of challenges in order to be understood.

Crafting to Be Understood and Giving Space

But I certainly write to be understood, as to the extent as that is achievable. Sometimes that requires guiding the audience's attention, directing them through the plot step by efficient point. At other times, I've understood, comprehension demands time – and I must give me (and other writers) the permission of meandering, of layering, of digressing, until I discover something meaningful. A particular writer argues for the fiction discovering new forms and that, rather than the standard plot structure, “different structures might help us conceive new approaches to craft our narratives dynamic and real, persist in creating our novels original”.

Evolution of the Book and Modern Platforms

From that perspective, each viewpoints align – the fiction may have to adapt to suit the modern audience, as it has repeatedly accomplished since it first emerged in the 18th century (in its current incarnation currently). Maybe, like previous writers, tomorrow's writers will return to publishing incrementally their works in publications. The future those creators may already be sharing their writing, chapter by chapter, on digital sites such as those visited by many of frequent visitors. Art forms shift with the period and we should let them.

More Than Brief Attention Spans

But let us not say that all shifts are entirely because of reduced attention spans. If that were the case, brief fiction anthologies and micro tales would be considered far more {commercial|profitable|marketable