Books I Haven't Finished Exploring Are Accumulating by My Bed. Could It Be That's a Benefit?
This is a bit awkward to reveal, but here goes. Several titles sit beside my bed, all partially finished. Inside my phone, I'm some distance through 36 audiobooks, which looks minor next to the nearly fifty digital books I've set aside on my digital device. This doesn't include the increasing pile of advance copies near my living room table, vying for praises, now that I am a published author myself.
Starting with Persistent Reading to Intentional Abandonment
On the surface, these figures might look to corroborate recently expressed comments about current attention spans. One novelist noted recently how effortless it is to break a individual's concentration when it is divided by digital platforms and the constant updates. They stated: “Maybe as readers' focus periods shift the writing will have to adjust with them.” But as an individual who used to stubbornly complete every book I picked up, I now regard it a individual choice to put down a book that I'm not connecting with.
Our Limited Span and the Glut of Possibilities
I don't feel that this habit is due to a short focus – rather more it stems from the sense of existence slipping through my fingers. I've consistently been affected by the monastic principle: “Hold mortality daily before your eyes.” Another reminder that we each have a mere limited time on this planet was as sobering to me as to anyone else. And yet at what previous moment in human history have we ever had such instant entry to so many incredible creative works, at any moment we desire? A glut of treasures awaits me in any bookstore and within each digital platform, and I want to be purposeful about where I direct my attention. Might “abandoning” a novel (term in the publishing industry for Unfinished) be not a mark of a limited mind, but a selective one?
Selecting for Understanding and Insight
Notably at a time when the industry (and therefore, commissioning) is still led by a particular demographic and its concerns. While reading about individuals distinct from us can help to develop the capacity for empathy, we furthermore select stories to reflect on our individual experiences and role in the world. Before the works on the shelves more accurately reflect the identities, stories and issues of potential audiences, it might be very difficult to keep their focus.
Contemporary Authorship and Reader Attention
Certainly, some authors are indeed effectively creating for the “modern focus”: the short prose of selected current novels, the tight fragments of different authors, and the quick sections of various contemporary stories are all a impressive showcase for a shorter approach and method. Furthermore there is plenty of author advice aimed at capturing a consumer: refine that opening line, improve that opening chapter, elevate the stakes (more! more!) and, if creating crime, introduce a dead body on the beginning. This guidance is all sound – a possible agent, editor or audience will devote only a several precious moments choosing whether or not to continue. It is little reason in being contrary, like the writer on a workshop I attended who, when confronted about the plot of their book, declared that “everything makes sense about 75% of the into the story”. No writer should force their follower through a sequence of difficult tasks in order to be grasped.
Writing to Be Understood and Giving Patience
And I absolutely write to be clear, as much as that is achievable. At times that demands holding the audience's attention, steering them through the plot point by economical beat. Sometimes, I've realised, insight demands perseverance – and I must allow my own self (and other writers) the grace of wandering, of adding depth, of digressing, until I find something authentic. An influential author makes the case for the fiction developing innovative patterns and that, rather than the traditional plot structure, “other structures might assist us imagine novel approaches to craft our stories dynamic and true, continue producing our works original”.
Transformation of the Book and Contemporary Formats
From that perspective, both perspectives agree – the story may have to change to fit the modern consumer, as it has constantly done since it first emerged in the 1700s (in its current incarnation now). It could be, like previous writers, coming writers will revert to publishing incrementally their novels in publications. The next these writers may already be sharing their content, section by section, on online platforms including those accessed by many of monthly users. Genres shift with the times and we should permit them.
More Than Brief Focus
But do not claim that every changes are all because of reduced concentration. If that was so, brief fiction compilations and flash fiction would be viewed far more {commercial|profitable|marketable
