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This is slightly uncomfortable to reveal, but I'll say it. Several books rest by my bed, each incompletely consumed. On my mobile device, I'm partway through thirty-six audiobooks, which looks minor alongside the 46 Kindle titles I've left unfinished on my e-reader. The situation doesn't count the expanding pile of early copies near my living room table, striving for endorsements, now that I am a established novelist myself.

Beginning with Dogged Completion to Intentional Abandonment

On the surface, these figures might look to confirm contemporary thoughts about current focus. One novelist commented a short while ago how easy it is to distract a individual's concentration when it is scattered by online networks and the 24-hour news. The author suggested: “Perhaps as readers' focus periods shift the literature will have to adjust with them.” But as a person who once would persistently finish whatever novel I picked up, I now view it a human right to put down a book that I'm not connecting with.

Life's Limited Span and the Glut of Options

I wouldn't believe that this habit is caused by a short concentration – rather more it stems from the sense of existence slipping through my fingers. I've always been affected by the Benedictine principle: “Hold mortality every day in mind.” A different idea that we each have a mere 4,000 weeks on this Earth was as sobering to me as to others. And yet at what other point in history have we ever had such direct availability to so many amazing creative works, at any moment we desire? A surplus of options meets me in each library and behind any screen, and I want to be purposeful about where I focus my attention. Might “not finishing” a book (term in the publishing industry for Incomplete) be not just a sign of a limited mind, but a discerning one?

Reading for Empathy and Self-awareness

Especially at a era when book production (consequently, selection) is still led by a specific group and its quandaries. Even though exploring about individuals different from our own lives can help to strengthen the muscle for compassion, we additionally read to reflect on our individual experiences and role in the universe. Until the books on the shelves more fully reflect the identities, stories and concerns of potential individuals, it might be extremely challenging to maintain their attention.

Current Writing and Consumer Engagement

Of course, some writers are actually effectively crafting for the “contemporary interest”: the short prose of some modern books, the focused sections of others, and the short sections of various recent books are all a impressive showcase for a shorter style and technique. Additionally there is no shortage of author advice aimed at securing a consumer: hone that opening line, enhance that start, elevate the tension (further! higher!) and, if writing crime, place a dead body on the beginning. Such advice is completely solid – a prospective publisher, publisher or audience will spend only a few limited seconds determining whether or not to continue. There is little reason in being contrary, like the person on a writing course I attended who, when confronted about the plot of their book, declared that “it all becomes clear about three-fourths of the through the book”. Not a single novelist should force their reader through a set of challenges in order to be grasped.

Creating to Be Accessible and Giving Patience

And I do write to be clear, as to the extent as that is possible. At times that requires guiding the consumer's interest, steering them through the narrative beat by succinct step. Sometimes, I've realised, understanding requires patience – and I must give me (and other creators) the freedom of exploring, of layering, of straying, until I discover something meaningful. An influential thinker contends for the novel finding new forms and that, rather than the standard plot structure, “other patterns might enable us conceive new approaches to make our narratives alive and authentic, continue making our novels fresh”.

Evolution of the Novel and Current Formats

In that sense, the two perspectives align – the fiction may have to evolve to accommodate the modern audience, as it has repeatedly accomplished since it first emerged in the 1700s (as we know it now). Perhaps, like past writers, coming writers will return to publishing incrementally their novels in publications. The next those writers may currently be publishing their writing, part by part, on digital services such as those accessed by many of monthly readers. Art forms evolve with the times and we should permit them.

More Than Brief Concentration

However we should not claim that any evolutions are entirely because of limited focus. Were that true, short story compilations and flash fiction would be considered far more {commercial|profitable|marketable