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This is slightly embarrassing to reveal, but here goes. A handful of books rest by my bed, all partially read. Within my smartphone, I'm some distance through thirty-six listening titles, which looks minor alongside the 46 digital books I've set aside on my e-reader. This doesn't account for the growing collection of early editions next to my living room table, competing for endorsements, now that I work as a professional author in my own right.

From Determined Completion to Intentional Abandonment

Initially, these stats might appear to corroborate recent opinions about modern attention spans. A writer observed a short while ago how effortless it is to distract a person's concentration when it is scattered by online networks and the news cycle. They stated: “Perhaps as readers' focus periods evolve the literature will have to adjust with them.” However as someone who previously would stubbornly get through whatever book I started, I now view it a personal freedom to set aside a story that I'm not in the mood for.

Life's Short Duration and the Wealth of Choices

I do not feel that this habit is due to a brief attention span – instead it comes from the awareness of time passing quickly. I've always been impressed by the monastic teaching: “Keep the end daily in view.” Another idea that we each have a mere finite period on this Earth was as shocking to me as to anyone else. And yet at what previous moment in history have we ever had such direct availability to so many mind-blowing masterpieces, anytime we choose? A glut of riches greets me in each bookstore and within each screen, and I want to be intentional about where I focus my energy. Might “not finishing” a story (shorthand in the book world for Unfinished) be not just a sign of a weak mind, but a selective one?

Reading for Understanding and Insight

Especially at a time when book production (consequently, acquisition) is still dominated by a certain social class and its concerns. Even though engaging with about characters distinct from us can help to strengthen the capacity for empathy, we furthermore choose books to reflect on our individual journeys and position in the universe. Before the works on the shelves more accurately depict the experiences, realities and concerns of potential readers, it might be quite challenging to maintain their focus.

Current Writing and Audience Interest

Of course, some authors are successfully writing for the “today's focus”: the tweet-length style of certain current novels, the tight fragments of others, and the short parts of various recent stories are all a wonderful example for a more concise approach and method. Furthermore there is no shortage of writing tips geared toward securing a audience: hone that first sentence, enhance that start, raise the drama (further! further!) and, if creating crime, put a dead body on the beginning. Such advice is all sound – a possible representative, editor or audience will use only a several precious seconds determining whether or not to forge ahead. It is little reason in being obstinate, like the individual on a writing course I joined who, when challenged about the narrative of their book, stated that “everything makes sense about 75% of the way through”. Not a single novelist should put their audience through a series of difficult tasks in order to be understood.

Writing to Be Accessible and Giving Space

But I do compose to be understood, as to the extent as that is possible. On occasion that requires guiding the reader's hand, guiding them through the plot beat by succinct step. At other times, I've realised, understanding demands perseverance – and I must give me (along with other creators) the permission of meandering, of building, of straying, until I hit upon something authentic. One author contends for the story developing new forms and that, instead of the standard plot structure, “alternative patterns might help us conceive new ways to make our tales alive and true, continue producing our novels fresh”.

Evolution of the Book and Current Platforms

From that perspective, the two viewpoints align – the story may have to change to suit the today's reader, as it has continually accomplished since it first emerged in the 18th century (in the form today). It could be, like previous authors, coming authors will return to releasing in parts their books in periodicals. The next such writers may even now be sharing their content, chapter by chapter, on online platforms such as those accessed by millions of monthly users. Art forms shift with the period and we should permit them.

Not Just Brief Concentration

However we should not say that every changes are all because of shorter attention spans. If that was so, brief fiction compilations and very short stories would be considered far more {commercial|profitable|marketable