Works I Abandoned Reading Are Accumulating by My Bedside. Could It Be That's a Positive Sign?
This is slightly embarrassing to confess, but here goes. Five books sit beside my bed, all only partly read. Inside my phone, I'm midway through thirty-six audio novels, which seems small alongside the 46 Kindle titles I've abandoned on my Kindle. That fails to account for the increasing stack of advance copies next to my coffee table, vying for blurbs, now that I am a professional author personally.
Starting with Determined Finishing to Purposeful Abandonment
On the surface, these figures might appear to support recently expressed comments about today's attention spans. One novelist commented recently how easy it is to lose a individual's concentration when it is fragmented by digital platforms and the constant updates. The author remarked: “Perhaps as individuals' concentration change the fiction will have to change with them.” Yet as a person who once would persistently finish whatever novel I began, I now regard it a individual choice to set aside a novel that I'm not connecting with.
Life's Limited Time and the Glut of Options
I do not believe that this habit is a result of a limited attention span – instead it relates to the sense of life slipping through my fingers. I've consistently been impressed by the spiritual maxim: “Keep the end daily in mind.” A different point that we each have a just limited time on this planet was as horrifying to me as to anyone else. But at what other point in human history have we ever had such direct entry to so many mind-blowing masterpieces, anytime we choose? A glut of options awaits me in any bookstore and on every device, and I strive to be deliberate about where I direct my energy. Is it possible “not finishing” a book (term in the publishing industry for Did Not Finish) be not just a mark of a poor focus, but a thoughtful one?
Choosing for Connection and Self-awareness
Particularly at a period when publishing (and therefore, selection) is still dominated by a specific social class and its issues. While exploring about individuals different from us can help to build the muscle for understanding, we additionally choose books to reflect on our individual lives and place in the universe. Until the books on the racks more accurately represent the backgrounds, realities and interests of possible audiences, it might be extremely challenging to hold their focus.
Current Writing and Consumer Attention
Naturally, some writers are indeed effectively crafting for the “modern attention span”: the short style of selected current works, the compact pieces of others, and the short sections of numerous modern books are all a impressive demonstration for a more concise approach and style. Furthermore there is plenty of craft advice aimed at grabbing a consumer: refine that first sentence, enhance that opening chapter, raise the stakes (further! further!) and, if creating mystery, place a dead body on the first page. This guidance is completely solid – a potential publisher, house or reader will use only a several precious minutes deciding whether or not to proceed. There is no point in being obstinate, like the writer on a writing course I participated in who, when questioned about the storyline of their manuscript, announced that “everything makes sense about 75% of the way through”. No writer should force their reader through a sequence of 12 labours in order to be grasped.
Creating to Be Clear and Giving Patience
And I absolutely create to be understood, as to the extent as that is possible. At times that demands leading the consumer's attention, steering them through the narrative beat by efficient step. At other times, I've discovered, understanding requires time – and I must give myself (as well as other authors) the permission of meandering, of building, of digressing, until I discover something authentic. A particular thinker contends for the novel developing fresh structures and that, instead of the traditional plot structure, “other structures might enable us envision new ways to create our narratives vital and true, persist in producing our novels fresh”.
Change of the Story and Contemporary Formats
From that perspective, both viewpoints agree – the story may have to adapt to accommodate the modern consumer, as it has constantly achieved since it first emerged in the 1700s (in its current incarnation today). Perhaps, like past writers, tomorrow's authors will revert to serialising their books in periodicals. The future these creators may even now be publishing their writing, section by section, on web-based services such as those used by many of regular visitors. Art forms shift with the times and we should let them.
Beyond Brief Focus
However we should not say that any evolutions are entirely because of reduced concentration. If that were the case, short story collections and micro tales would be viewed much more {commercial|profitable|marketable
