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This is a bit awkward to reveal, but I'll say it. A handful of titles sit next to my bed, all incompletely read. Inside my smartphone, I'm partway through 36 listening titles, which pales next to the 46 ebooks I've left unfinished on my digital device. The situation does not count the expanding collection of advance editions beside my side table, vying for endorsements, now that I am a professional novelist myself.

Starting with Persistent Completion to Intentional Letting Go

At first glance, these stats might appear to confirm recent comments about modern concentration. A writer noted recently how simple it is to break a person's focus when it is divided by digital platforms and the news cycle. He remarked: “Maybe as individuals' focus periods shift the writing will have to adapt with them.” However as someone who used to doggedly complete any book I began, I now consider it a personal freedom to set aside a story that I'm not in the mood for.

Our Short Span and the Glut of Possibilities

I don't believe that this habit is caused by a short concentration – rather more it relates to the feeling of life passing quickly. I've often been struck by the spiritual principle: “Keep death every day in view.” One point that we each have a only finite period on this Earth was as sobering to me as to everyone. But at what different time in history have we ever had such immediate entry to so many amazing masterpieces, at any moment we choose? A wealth of riches meets me in every bookshop and behind every digital platform, and I strive to be purposeful about where I direct my time. Could “not finishing” a book (term in the book world for Did Not Finish) be rather than a sign of a poor mind, but a discerning one?

Selecting for Understanding and Reflection

Notably at a era when publishing (consequently, acquisition) is still led by a certain social class and its quandaries. While reading about people distinct from us can help to build the muscle for empathy, we also read to think about our individual lives and position in the universe. Until the books on the racks better represent the identities, realities and interests of potential audiences, it might be quite hard to keep their interest.

Current Writing and Consumer Attention

Naturally, some novelists are successfully writing for the “today's attention span”: the concise prose of selected current works, the tight fragments of others, and the brief parts of numerous recent stories are all a impressive demonstration for a more concise form and method. Additionally there is plenty of writing tips designed for securing a reader: perfect that initial phrase, enhance that start, raise the stakes (higher! higher!) and, if creating crime, introduce a victim on the opening. This advice is all solid – a possible representative, publisher or audience will devote only a several precious minutes deciding whether or not to forge ahead. There is no point in being difficult, like the person on a class I joined who, when challenged about the plot of their book, declared that “it all becomes clear about three-quarters of the way through”. No author should put their audience through a series of difficult tasks in order to be grasped.

Creating to Be Clear and Allowing Patience

But I certainly compose to be clear, as much as that is achievable. On occasion that demands holding the reader's interest, steering them through the story beat by succinct beat. Sometimes, I've realised, insight takes perseverance – and I must allow my own self (as well as other authors) the permission of wandering, of layering, of deviating, until I discover something true. A particular writer contends for the novel developing innovative patterns and that, as opposed to the conventional narrative arc, “different forms might enable us conceive new approaches to craft our tales vital and real, keep creating our novels novel”.

Evolution of the Novel and Current Mediums

In that sense, each opinions agree – the story may have to change to fit the today's reader, as it has repeatedly done since it first emerged in the 1700s (in its current incarnation today). Perhaps, like previous authors, future authors will return to publishing incrementally their works in periodicals. The future those authors may already be publishing their work, chapter by chapter, on digital services including those accessed by millions of monthly visitors. Genres shift with the times and we should allow them.

Not Just Short Concentration

But we should not claim that every changes are all because of limited concentration. If that were the case, short story collections and very short stories would be considered much more {commercial|profitable|marketable