Books I Didn't Complete Reading Are Accumulating by My Bedside. What If That's a Benefit?
It's a bit uncomfortable to admit, but let me explain. Several titles rest beside my bed, every one only partly read. On my phone, I'm midway through over three dozen listening titles, which pales next to the 46 ebooks I've abandoned on my Kindle. This doesn't count the growing pile of pre-release copies near my coffee table, striving for blurbs, now that I work as a professional writer in my own right.
Starting with Determined Reading to Purposeful Abandonment
On the surface, these figures might seem to corroborate contemporary comments about today's attention spans. One novelist observed a short while ago how simple it is to break a person's focus when it is fragmented by digital platforms and the news cycle. He remarked: “Perhaps as individuals' concentration change the literature will have to adjust with them.” But as a person who once would stubbornly complete any title I started, I now view it a human right to put down a novel that I'm not connecting with.
Life's Finite Span and the Abundance of Options
I don't feel that this habit is caused by a limited attention span – rather more it stems from the sense of existence passing quickly. I've always been struck by the monastic teaching: “Place death every day in view.” Another point that we each have a only limited time on this Earth was as horrifying to me as to anyone else. However at what different moment in human history have we ever had such instant entry to so many mind-blowing creative works, at any moment we desire? A wealth of treasures greets me in any bookstore and behind each screen, and I want to be intentional about where I direct my attention. Could “DNF-ing” a story (term in the literary community for Unfinished) be rather than a mark of a poor mind, but a thoughtful one?
Choosing for Understanding and Self-awareness
Notably at a period when the industry (and thus, commissioning) is still dominated by a particular social class and its concerns. Although reading about people different from us can help to build the ability for understanding, we also choose books to consider our own journeys and role in the universe. Until the titles on the displays more accurately reflect the backgrounds, lives and interests of possible individuals, it might be quite difficult to maintain their attention.
Contemporary Storytelling and Consumer Attention
Certainly, some writers are successfully creating for the “modern attention span”: the tweet-length style of selected current novels, the compact sections of others, and the brief chapters of several modern stories are all a wonderful example for a more concise form and method. And there is no shortage of craft guidance aimed at securing a audience: refine that opening line, polish that beginning section, raise the drama (higher! further!) and, if creating crime, put a mystery on the first page. This suggestions is all solid – a prospective publisher, publisher or reader will spend only a few valuable moments choosing whether or not to continue. There's no point in being obstinate, like the individual on a workshop I attended who, when questioned about the plot of their manuscript, announced that “the meaning emerges about three-fourths of the way through”. No writer should force their follower through a sequence of difficult tasks in order to be understood.
Crafting to Be Clear and Giving Time
Yet I absolutely compose to be comprehended, as much as that is possible. Sometimes that needs holding the reader's interest, guiding them through the narrative point by succinct step. Occasionally, I've realised, comprehension takes perseverance – and I must grant myself (along with other writers) the permission of meandering, of layering, of straying, until I hit upon something true. A particular author contends for the story discovering fresh structures and that, instead of the conventional narrative arc, “different structures might help us conceive novel approaches to make our stories alive and real, persist in making our works novel”.
Change of the Story and Current Platforms
In that sense, the two perspectives align – the story may have to adapt to accommodate the modern audience, as it has repeatedly achieved since it began in the 1700s (in the form now). Maybe, like earlier novelists, future creators will revert to serialising their books in periodicals. The upcoming those creators may even now be sharing their writing, section by section, on web-based services like those used by countless of monthly visitors. Art forms change with the times and we should allow them.
Beyond Limited Focus
But we should not assert that any shifts are all because of limited focus. If that were the case, concise narrative anthologies and flash fiction would be regarded considerably more {commercial|profitable|marketable
