Works I Abandoned Enjoying Are Piling Up by My Nightstand. Is It Possible That's a Benefit?
It's a bit embarrassing to admit, but let me explain. A handful of novels wait beside my bed, each incompletely finished. Inside my mobile device, I'm midway through 36 audio novels, which pales alongside the 46 ebooks I've set aside on my digital device. This fails to count the increasing pile of advance editions next to my living room table, vying for praises, now that I work as a published author in my own right.
From Determined Finishing to Purposeful Setting Aside
Initially, these numbers might seem to confirm recently expressed thoughts about current focus. An author noted a short while ago how effortless it is to distract a individual's concentration when it is scattered by social media and the news cycle. He stated: “It could be as individuals' attention spans evolve the writing will have to change with them.” But as a person who once would stubbornly finish every novel I began, I now consider it a individual choice to stop reading a novel that I'm not in the mood for.
Life's Short Duration and the Wealth of Options
I do not believe that this tendency is caused by a brief focus – rather more it stems from the awareness of time slipping through my fingers. I've consistently been impressed by the Benedictine principle: “Keep mortality each day in mind.” One idea that we each have a just limited time on this Earth was as horrifying to me as to everyone. And yet at what previous point in history have we ever had such instant entry to so many incredible masterpieces, whenever we desire? A glut of treasures meets me in any bookstore and on each digital platform, and I aim to be deliberate about where I direct my energy. Could “DNF-ing” a book (term in the book world for Did Not Finish) be not just a sign of a poor focus, but a discerning one?
Choosing for Understanding and Self-awareness
Especially at a period when book production (consequently, acquisition) is still controlled by a specific group and its quandaries. Even though engaging with about characters different from ourselves can help to build the capacity for empathy, we also choose books to think about our individual experiences and place in the society. Unless the works on the racks more accurately depict the backgrounds, realities and interests of potential readers, it might be extremely difficult to maintain their attention.
Contemporary Authorship and Consumer Engagement
Certainly, some authors are successfully crafting for the “contemporary focus”: the short prose of some current novels, the focused fragments of others, and the quick parts of various recent titles are all a wonderful showcase for a briefer approach and style. And there is plenty of craft advice aimed at capturing a audience: refine that first sentence, polish that opening chapter, increase the drama (higher! further!) and, if writing mystery, put a mystery on the opening. This guidance is all sound – a potential agent, house or reader will spend only a a handful of valuable seconds determining whether or not to proceed. It is no benefit in being difficult, like the individual on a workshop I attended who, when confronted about the narrative of their novel, announced that “it all becomes clear about 75% of the through the book”. Not a single novelist should force their audience through a set of 12 labours in order to be understood.
Crafting to Be Accessible and Granting Space
But I certainly compose to be understood, as far as that is feasible. Sometimes that needs guiding the consumer's interest, guiding them through the narrative step by succinct beat. Sometimes, I've realised, understanding demands time – and I must grant my own self (along with other creators) the grace of meandering, of adding depth, of digressing, until I hit upon something true. One writer makes the case for the story developing innovative patterns and that, rather than the traditional narrative arc, “alternative forms might assist us envision new approaches to create our stories dynamic and true, keep making our books fresh”.
Change of the Story and Modern Mediums
From that perspective, the two viewpoints align – the novel may have to evolve to accommodate the today's consumer, as it has constantly achieved since it first emerged in the historical period (in the form now). Maybe, like previous writers, future writers will revert to publishing incrementally their works in newspapers. The next those authors may even now be releasing their content, part by part, on web-based services like those used by many of monthly readers. Art forms evolve with the times and we should let them.
Not Just Limited Attention Spans
But let us not assert that any shifts are all because of limited attention spans. If that were the case, brief fiction collections and very short stories would be regarded far more {commercial|profitable|marketable
