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It's slightly awkward to admit, but here goes. A handful of books rest next to my bed, all only partly read. Inside my phone, I'm partway through 36 listening titles, which pales alongside the forty-six digital books I've set aside on my e-reader. That does not count the expanding stack of pre-release editions beside my coffee table, competing for blurbs, now that I have become a published writer personally.

Beginning with Dogged Completion to Deliberate Abandonment

On the surface, these numbers might appear to corroborate recently expressed opinions about modern attention spans. An author observed recently how easy it is to distract a person's concentration when it is divided by social media and the news cycle. They suggested: “Maybe as individuals' attention spans shift the literature will have to adapt with them.” Yet as a person who previously would stubbornly get through any novel I began, I now consider it a personal freedom to stop reading a novel that I'm not connecting with.

Our Finite Span and the Abundance of Choices

I do not feel that this practice is caused by a brief attention span – more accurately it relates to the awareness of life passing quickly. I've consistently been affected by the spiritual principle: “Hold the end every day before your eyes.” One reminder that we each have a just limited time on this planet was as sobering to me as to everyone. And yet at what different moment in human history have we ever had such direct availability to so many amazing works of art, anytime we want? A glut of options meets me in every bookstore and within any digital platform, and I strive to be deliberate about where I channel my attention. Is it possible “not finishing” a book (abbreviation in the publishing industry for Incomplete) be not a indication of a limited focus, but a discerning one?

Selecting for Empathy and Reflection

Especially at a era when book production (and therefore, selection) is still controlled by a specific demographic and its quandaries. Even though reading about characters distinct from ourselves can help to develop the capacity for understanding, we also select stories to reflect on our personal lives and place in the universe. Until the works on the shelves better reflect the identities, stories and issues of potential individuals, it might be very challenging to hold their interest.

Contemporary Authorship and Consumer Interest

Certainly, some novelists are actually successfully crafting for the “today's attention span”: the tweet-length style of some modern novels, the focused pieces of others, and the short parts of several modern titles are all a excellent demonstration for a more concise form and style. And there is an abundance of author advice geared toward securing a reader: hone that first sentence, improve that beginning section, raise the stakes (higher! higher!) and, if crafting mystery, place a dead body on the opening. This guidance is completely sound – a possible representative, editor or audience will use only a several precious minutes choosing whether or not to proceed. There's little reason in being difficult, like the individual on a writing course I attended who, when challenged about the storyline of their book, announced that “everything makes sense about 75% of the into the story”. No writer should force their audience through a sequence of difficult tasks in order to be grasped.

Writing to Be Understood and Granting Patience

Yet I certainly create to be understood, as much as that is possible. Sometimes that needs leading the consumer's hand, steering them through the narrative point by efficient beat. Occasionally, I've discovered, insight demands perseverance – and I must give myself (along with other writers) the permission of wandering, of adding depth, of digressing, until I hit upon something meaningful. One author argues for the novel developing new forms and that, rather than the traditional plot structure, “other patterns might enable us imagine novel approaches to make our tales vital and true, continue creating our works novel”.

Change of the Book and Contemporary Platforms

In that sense, each viewpoints converge – the fiction may have to evolve to fit the today's audience, as it has repeatedly done since it first emerged in the 1700s (in the form now). It could be, like previous authors, coming writers will go back to serialising their works in periodicals. The upcoming such authors may already be sharing their work, section by section, on web-based platforms including those accessed by many of monthly users. Creative mediums change with the era and we should let them.

Not Just Brief Attention Spans

Yet let us not say that any changes are entirely because of limited attention spans. Were that true, brief fiction compilations and flash fiction would be considered far more {commercial|profitable|marketable