🔗 Share this article

It's a bit uncomfortable to admit, but I'll say it. Several titles wait next to my bed, each partially read. Inside my phone, I'm midway through over three dozen listening titles, which pales next to the 46 digital books I've abandoned on my e-reader. This doesn't count the growing collection of pre-release versions next to my coffee table, vying for praises, now that I work as a established novelist myself.

Starting with Persistent Reading to Intentional Abandonment

Initially, these numbers might look to confirm recently expressed comments about modern attention spans. A writer observed not long back how effortless it is to lose a reader's focus when it is scattered by digital platforms and the news cycle. The author suggested: “Perhaps as readers' concentration shift the writing will have to adjust with them.” Yet as an individual who previously would persistently complete any novel I picked up, I now consider it a human right to stop reading a story that I'm not enjoying.

Our Finite Span and the Glut of Choices

I do not believe that this practice is a result of a limited focus – rather more it relates to the feeling of time slipping through my fingers. I've consistently been affected by the monastic principle: “Keep death daily before your eyes.” A different idea that we each have a just finite period on this planet was as horrifying to me as to anyone else. And yet at what different moment in human history have we ever had such instant entry to so many mind-blowing masterpieces, whenever we want? A glut of treasures greets me in each bookstore and on every digital platform, and I want to be deliberate about where I channel my time. Might “not finishing” a story (abbreviation in the literary community for Did Not Finish) be rather than a sign of a poor focus, but a thoughtful one?

Choosing for Understanding and Reflection

Particularly at a period when publishing (consequently, selection) is still controlled by a specific social class and its concerns. Even though engaging with about individuals distinct from ourselves can help to build the capacity for compassion, we furthermore read to reflect on our individual journeys and place in the world. Unless the books on the shelves better represent the identities, lives and issues of prospective individuals, it might be very hard to hold their focus.

Contemporary Writing and Audience Interest

Naturally, some novelists are skillfully creating for the “today's attention span”: the concise writing of some current works, the tight sections of others, and the quick parts of numerous contemporary titles are all a wonderful showcase for a shorter style and style. Additionally there is an abundance of craft advice designed for grabbing a reader: hone that first sentence, enhance that opening chapter, elevate the tension (higher! further!) and, if writing thriller, introduce a victim on the beginning. That guidance is completely solid – a potential representative, editor or reader will spend only a a handful of valuable seconds determining whether or not to forge ahead. It is no point in being obstinate, like the individual on a workshop I attended who, when challenged about the narrative of their book, announced that “the meaning emerges about three-fourths of the into the story”. Not a single author should put their follower through a series of 12 labours in order to be grasped.

Writing to Be Clear and Giving Space

And I absolutely write to be understood, as much as that is achievable. At times that demands leading the consumer's interest, guiding them through the story beat by economical beat. Sometimes, I've realised, comprehension demands time – and I must allow me (and other creators) the permission of meandering, of layering, of deviating, until I hit upon something meaningful. A particular author makes the case for the novel discovering fresh structures and that, as opposed to the traditional narrative arc, “other structures might help us conceive novel ways to craft our tales alive and true, keep making our novels original”.

Evolution of the Story and Contemporary Mediums

In that sense, the two viewpoints converge – the fiction may have to evolve to accommodate the today's audience, as it has constantly achieved since it began in the 1700s (in its current incarnation today). Perhaps, like earlier writers, tomorrow's writers will return to serialising their books in periodicals. The next such authors may currently be sharing their writing, part by part, on web-based platforms like those visited by many of regular users. Art forms change with the period and we should allow them.

Not Just Brief Concentration

Yet let us not say that any shifts are all because of shorter attention spans. If that was so, short story collections and flash fiction would be regarded far more {commercial|profitable|marketable