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This is a bit embarrassing to reveal, but here goes. Five titles sit beside my bed, each incompletely consumed. Inside my smartphone, I'm midway through over three dozen audiobooks, which pales next to the forty-six ebooks I've set aside on my e-reader. The situation fails to account for the growing collection of advance copies near my side table, competing for praises, now that I am a professional author in my own right.

Beginning with Determined Reading to Intentional Abandonment

At first glance, these numbers might seem to confirm recent thoughts about today's focus. A writer commented a short while ago how simple it is to distract a person's attention when it is fragmented by online networks and the news cycle. He suggested: “Perhaps as individuals' focus periods shift the fiction will have to adapt with them.” Yet as an individual who once would persistently complete any novel I picked up, I now view it a personal freedom to set aside a book that I'm not enjoying.

The Finite Duration and the Abundance of Choices

I wouldn't think that this practice is a result of a limited attention span – more accurately it comes from the awareness of life slipping through my fingers. I've often been affected by the monastic principle: “Keep mortality each day before your eyes.” Another reminder that we each have a only limited time on this planet was as sobering to me as to anyone else. And yet at what different time in history have we ever had such immediate availability to so many amazing works of art, anytime we desire? A glut of treasures awaits me in any library and on every screen, and I want to be deliberate about where I focus my time. Could “DNF-ing” a story (abbreviation in the literary community for Unfinished) be not just a sign of a limited intellect, but a thoughtful one?

Choosing for Empathy and Insight

Particularly at a era when publishing (consequently, commissioning) is still dominated by a particular demographic and its quandaries. Although reading about individuals different from us can help to build the capacity for compassion, we also read to reflect on our own journeys and role in the world. Until the works on the shelves more fully reflect the backgrounds, realities and interests of possible individuals, it might be extremely challenging to maintain their interest.

Contemporary Authorship and Reader Attention

Certainly, some authors are skillfully creating for the “today's interest”: the concise style of selected modern books, the focused sections of additional writers, and the brief sections of several recent books are all a wonderful example for a shorter form and technique. Additionally there is an abundance of author guidance designed for capturing a reader: refine that first sentence, enhance that beginning section, raise the tension (further! further!) and, if writing crime, place a mystery on the opening. This guidance is all sound – a possible agent, editor or audience will devote only a several valuable seconds deciding whether or not to forge ahead. There's little reason in being obstinate, like the individual on a class I attended who, when confronted about the narrative of their book, announced that “it all becomes clear about three-quarters of the way through”. No author should put their audience through a set of challenges in order to be grasped.

Crafting to Be Accessible and Giving Time

But I do create to be clear, as to the extent as that is feasible. On occasion that needs leading the audience's hand, guiding them through the story beat by efficient beat. Occasionally, I've understood, insight takes patience – and I must allow myself (and other writers) the permission of meandering, of adding depth, of deviating, until I discover something authentic. An influential writer argues for the fiction discovering fresh structures and that, instead of the traditional dramatic arc, “alternative structures might enable us envision new methods to make our stories alive and authentic, keep producing our novels original”.

Evolution of the Story and Contemporary Formats

Accordingly, each perspectives align – the fiction may have to adapt to suit the contemporary reader, as it has constantly achieved since it originated in the 18th century (as we know it now). Maybe, like previous writers, tomorrow's writers will go back to publishing incrementally their novels in periodicals. The upcoming those creators may even now be sharing their writing, chapter by chapter, on digital services such as those accessed by many of monthly users. Creative mediums change with the period and we should let them.

More Than Short Focus

However let us not assert that all shifts are entirely because of reduced concentration. If that were the case, short story anthologies and very short stories would be regarded far more {commercial|profitable|marketable