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It's somewhat awkward to admit, but I'll say it. A handful of titles wait next to my bed, every one partially finished. Inside my smartphone, I'm partway through 36 audio novels, which looks minor compared to the nearly fifty digital books I've left unfinished on my Kindle. The situation doesn't count the growing stack of pre-release editions next to my coffee table, striving for endorsements, now that I am a professional novelist in my own right.

Starting with Dogged Reading to Deliberate Abandonment

At first glance, these numbers might appear to confirm recently expressed thoughts about modern focus. A writer noted a short while ago how easy it is to break a person's concentration when it is fragmented by social media and the 24-hour news. He stated: “Maybe as individuals' concentration change the fiction will have to adjust with them.” However as someone who once would persistently complete whatever book I picked up, I now regard it a personal freedom to stop reading a story that I'm not enjoying.

Life's Short Duration and the Abundance of Choices

I wouldn't feel that this habit is due to a short concentration – more accurately it comes from the feeling of life passing quickly. I've always been impressed by the Benedictine maxim: “Hold death daily before your eyes.” One reminder that we each have a just finite period on this planet was as sobering to me as to everyone. And yet at what other point in our past have we ever had such immediate entry to so many incredible creative works, anytime we want? A surplus of treasures meets me in each library and on any digital platform, and I aim to be purposeful about where I channel my energy. Might “abandoning” a novel (term in the publishing industry for Unfinished) be not a mark of a poor intellect, but a selective one?

Selecting for Understanding and Insight

Notably at a period when the industry (and therefore, commissioning) is still controlled by a specific group and its issues. Even though reading about people distinct from our own lives can help to build the muscle for compassion, we also select stories to reflect on our own experiences and position in the society. Before the titles on the displays better reflect the identities, stories and concerns of possible individuals, it might be very difficult to keep their interest.

Contemporary Authorship and Audience Interest

Certainly, some novelists are actually successfully writing for the “modern attention span”: the concise writing of some current books, the compact sections of additional writers, and the quick chapters of several contemporary stories are all a excellent demonstration for a briefer style and technique. And there is plenty of author tips aimed at capturing a consumer: refine that opening line, improve that opening chapter, raise the drama (higher! further!) and, if crafting thriller, place a dead body on the beginning. This advice is entirely sound – a potential publisher, house or audience will spend only a few valuable seconds choosing whether or not to forge ahead. It is no benefit in being contrary, like the writer on a writing course I joined who, when questioned about the plot of their novel, declared that “the meaning emerges about three-quarters of the into the story”. No writer should force their audience through a set of difficult tasks in order to be comprehended.

Creating to Be Accessible and Granting Space

But I certainly compose to be understood, as to the extent as that is achievable. At times that requires guiding the consumer's hand, directing them through the plot point by efficient beat. Sometimes, I've understood, insight demands patience – and I must give my own self (and other authors) the grace of exploring, of adding depth, of straying, until I discover something authentic. One writer contends for the story finding fresh structures and that, as opposed to the standard dramatic arc, “alternative structures might help us conceive new methods to create our stories vital and authentic, continue producing our novels original”.

Change of the Book and Contemporary Formats

In that sense, the two viewpoints agree – the novel may have to change to fit the today's audience, as it has constantly achieved since it first emerged in the 18th century (as we know it today). Maybe, like earlier novelists, tomorrow's creators will return to releasing in parts their books in newspapers. The future such authors may even now be sharing their writing, part by part, on digital platforms including those accessed by millions of monthly visitors. Genres shift with the times and we should let them.

Beyond Short Focus

Yet let us not assert that every changes are all because of reduced concentration. Were that true, brief fiction compilations and micro tales would be regarded far more {commercial|profitable|marketable