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It's a bit embarrassing to confess, but here goes. A handful of titles sit beside my bed, every one only partly read. Within my mobile device, I'm partway through 36 audiobooks, which looks minor next to the nearly fifty Kindle titles I've left unfinished on my e-reader. That doesn't count the expanding pile of early versions next to my living room table, striving for blurbs, now that I am a published author in my own right.

Starting with Dogged Reading to Intentional Letting Go

Initially, these numbers might appear to confirm contemporary comments about modern focus. One novelist noted recently how simple it is to break a reader's concentration when it is fragmented by online networks and the news cycle. He stated: “Perhaps as people's attention spans change the fiction will have to adjust with them.” Yet as a person who once would stubbornly complete every title I picked up, I now consider it a human right to set aside a book that I'm not connecting with.

The Short Duration and the Abundance of Choices

I do not believe that this habit is caused by a short concentration – rather more it relates to the feeling of life moving swiftly. I've always been impressed by the Benedictine maxim: “Keep mortality every day in view.” One point that we each have a mere finite period on this Earth was as shocking to me as to anyone else. But at what previous time in history have we ever had such instant access to so many amazing works of art, at any moment we want? A glut of options meets me in every bookstore and within each screen, and I want to be deliberate about where I channel my attention. Is it possible “abandoning” a book (term in the publishing industry for Did Not Finish) be not a mark of a poor mind, but a selective one?

Choosing for Empathy and Insight

Particularly at a era when book production (and therefore, commissioning) is still dominated by a particular group and its issues. Even though exploring about people different from us can help to strengthen the muscle for compassion, we also choose books to consider our own lives and position in the world. Until the books on the racks better depict the experiences, stories and concerns of prospective readers, it might be very hard to keep their interest.

Current Writing and Audience Interest

Of course, some writers are actually skillfully creating for the “contemporary attention span”: the concise style of some recent novels, the tight fragments of additional writers, and the brief sections of various contemporary stories are all a impressive demonstration for a shorter approach and technique. Furthermore there is no shortage of craft tips designed for grabbing a consumer: refine that opening line, enhance that start, increase the stakes (higher! higher!) and, if writing crime, put a mystery on the opening. Such guidance is entirely solid – a prospective agent, house or buyer will use only a a handful of precious moments deciding whether or not to continue. It is no point in being obstinate, like the person on a writing course I attended who, when questioned about the plot of their novel, declared that “it all becomes clear about 75% of the through the book”. Not a single author should subject their follower through a set of difficult tasks in order to be grasped.

Crafting to Be Understood and Granting Space

And I certainly write to be clear, as much as that is feasible. Sometimes that needs leading the consumer's attention, directing them through the plot step by economical point. Sometimes, I've realised, understanding takes patience – and I must grant myself (and other writers) the freedom of meandering, of building, of deviating, until I find something authentic. A particular writer makes the case for the story discovering innovative patterns and that, rather than the traditional narrative arc, “alternative structures might help us conceive new ways to make our narratives alive and authentic, continue producing our works novel”.

Evolution of the Book and Modern Mediums

Accordingly, both perspectives align – the fiction may have to change to suit the today's consumer, as it has constantly achieved since it first emerged in the historical period (as we know it now). It could be, like past writers, coming authors will return to serialising their books in periodicals. The next such creators may already be publishing their work, part by part, on digital platforms including those visited by many of regular visitors. Art forms evolve with the era and we should permit them.

Not Just Brief Attention Spans

However do not claim that any shifts are completely because of shorter attention spans. Were that true, concise narrative anthologies and flash fiction would be viewed far more {commercial|profitable|marketable