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This is somewhat awkward to reveal, but here goes. Five books sit beside my bed, every one only partly consumed. Inside my mobile device, I'm midway through 36 listening titles, which pales compared to the 46 Kindle titles I've left unfinished on my e-reader. That does not count the increasing collection of pre-release editions next to my coffee table, competing for praises, now that I am a professional author personally.

From Dogged Finishing to Purposeful Abandonment

On the surface, these numbers might look to corroborate recent thoughts about modern focus. A writer noted a short while ago how easy it is to distract a person's focus when it is fragmented by digital platforms and the constant updates. He stated: “Maybe as people's focus periods change the fiction will have to adapt with them.” But as an individual who once would persistently get through whatever title I picked up, I now view it a personal freedom to set aside a story that I'm not enjoying.

The Finite Duration and the Glut of Options

I do not feel that this habit is due to a brief focus – instead it relates to the feeling of time slipping through my fingers. I've often been struck by the spiritual principle: “Place the end daily in mind.” Another idea that we each have a mere limited time on this planet was as horrifying to me as to anyone else. However at what other point in human history have we ever had such instant access to so many incredible works of art, whenever we choose? A surplus of options meets me in each library and behind every device, and I strive to be deliberate about where I channel my attention. Might “not finishing” a story (shorthand in the publishing industry for Unfinished) be not a sign of a poor focus, but a thoughtful one?

Choosing for Understanding and Insight

Particularly at a period when the industry (and thus, commissioning) is still led by a certain social class and its concerns. While engaging with about people unlike ourselves can help to develop the muscle for understanding, we also choose books to consider our individual experiences and role in the universe. Before the books on the shelves more fully depict the identities, stories and interests of possible individuals, it might be quite hard to maintain their focus.

Contemporary Writing and Audience Interest

Of course, some authors are successfully writing for the “today's attention span”: the concise style of selected current novels, the compact sections of others, and the short sections of numerous recent books are all a wonderful showcase for a more concise form and technique. And there is plenty of author advice geared toward grabbing a consumer: hone that initial phrase, polish that opening chapter, increase the drama (further! further!) and, if writing mystery, place a mystery on the beginning. That guidance is completely sound – a prospective publisher, publisher or reader will use only a several precious moments determining whether or not to proceed. There is little reason in being obstinate, like the person on a writing course I participated in who, when challenged about the plot of their manuscript, announced that “the meaning emerges about three-fourths of the way through”. No novelist should subject their follower through a sequence of 12 labours in order to be understood.

Creating to Be Accessible and Allowing Patience

And I do write to be comprehended, as far as that is possible. On occasion that needs holding the consumer's attention, directing them through the narrative beat by succinct step. Sometimes, I've discovered, comprehension takes time – and I must give myself (and other creators) the permission of meandering, of building, of deviating, until I find something meaningful. One author makes the case for the story developing new forms and that, as opposed to the conventional narrative arc, “other forms might assist us conceive innovative ways to craft our narratives alive and real, persist in producing our novels original”.

Evolution of the Novel and Contemporary Mediums

In that sense, each perspectives agree – the fiction may have to adapt to fit the modern reader, as it has continually achieved since it originated in the 1700s (as we know it currently). Maybe, like past authors, coming writers will revert to publishing incrementally their books in newspapers. The future such writers may currently be sharing their writing, section by section, on web-based services like those used by countless of monthly visitors. Genres change with the era and we should permit them.

Beyond Short Concentration

But let us not say that all evolutions are entirely because of reduced focus. Were that true, short story anthologies and very short stories would be considered far more {commercial|profitable|marketable