🔗 Share this article

This is somewhat awkward to confess, but let me explain. A handful of books sit next to my bed, all incompletely read. Within my smartphone, I'm some distance through over three dozen audio novels, which looks minor compared to the nearly fifty digital books I've abandoned on my e-reader. That doesn't count the expanding stack of advance editions next to my living room table, competing for praises, now that I am a published author in my own right.

From Dogged Completion to Intentional Letting Go

At first glance, these figures might seem to support recently expressed thoughts about modern attention spans. An author observed recently how simple it is to distract a person's attention when it is divided by digital platforms and the constant updates. He remarked: “Maybe as individuals' focus periods shift the literature will have to adjust with them.” But as someone who previously would doggedly get through every title I began, I now regard it a personal freedom to put down a story that I'm not in the mood for.

The Short Duration and the Glut of Possibilities

I don't feel that this practice is due to a limited concentration – instead it relates to the feeling of existence slipping through my fingers. I've often been affected by the monastic teaching: “Place death each day in view.” Another reminder that we each have a only 4,000 weeks on this Earth was as shocking to me as to anyone else. And yet at what other point in history have we ever had such instant availability to so many incredible creative works, at any moment we choose? A surplus of options awaits me in every bookshop and within each device, and I want to be purposeful about where I channel my attention. Could “DNF-ing” a novel (shorthand in the book world for Incomplete) be not a mark of a poor mind, but a discerning one?

Choosing for Understanding and Insight

Notably at a time when publishing (consequently, commissioning) is still led by a certain group and its issues. Even though reading about characters unlike our own lives can help to strengthen the ability for understanding, we furthermore read to think about our personal journeys and place in the world. Before the works on the racks better reflect the backgrounds, realities and issues of possible audiences, it might be very hard to keep their attention.

Contemporary Authorship and Reader Engagement

Of course, some authors are actually successfully creating for the “contemporary focus”: the short prose of some current novels, the tight fragments of others, and the quick chapters of numerous recent titles are all a impressive demonstration for a shorter style and style. Furthermore there is no shortage of craft guidance aimed at capturing a reader: perfect that first sentence, polish that beginning section, elevate the stakes (higher! further!) and, if writing crime, introduce a mystery on the opening. That guidance is all good – a potential representative, publisher or audience will use only a a handful of limited moments determining whether or not to forge ahead. It is no point in being difficult, like the person on a writing course I participated in who, when confronted about the narrative of their novel, stated that “everything makes sense about three-fourths of the way through”. No novelist should force their follower through a set of 12 labours in order to be grasped.

Crafting to Be Understood and Allowing Patience

But I do write to be comprehended, as to the extent as that is possible. On occasion that demands guiding the audience's interest, steering them through the plot step by efficient step. Occasionally, I've realised, understanding demands patience – and I must give my own self (along with other creators) the permission of wandering, of adding depth, of straying, until I discover something authentic. One writer makes the case for the novel developing innovative patterns and that, as opposed to the traditional narrative arc, “other forms might enable us envision new approaches to create our stories dynamic and real, persist in making our works novel”.

Transformation of the Novel and Current Platforms

Accordingly, the two opinions agree – the fiction may have to evolve to suit the contemporary reader, as it has repeatedly achieved since it originated in the 18th century (in its current incarnation today). Maybe, like past novelists, future creators will return to serialising their works in publications. The next those creators may already be publishing their content, section by section, on web-based services including those visited by millions of regular users. Creative mediums shift with the times and we should allow them.

More Than Short Focus

Yet we should not say that every shifts are completely because of limited focus. If that was so, concise narrative anthologies and micro tales would be viewed considerably more {commercial|profitable|marketable