Works I Haven't Finished Reading Are Stacking by My Bed. Could It Be That's a Good Thing?
This is somewhat uncomfortable to confess, but here goes. Several novels rest next to my bed, all incompletely finished. Within my smartphone, I'm some distance through 36 audiobooks, which pales alongside the 46 digital books I've abandoned on my Kindle. That fails to include the growing pile of early editions near my living room table, competing for praises, now that I have become a professional writer personally.
Starting with Dogged Reading to Deliberate Setting Aside
At first glance, these stats might seem to corroborate contemporary thoughts about current attention spans. An author observed a short while ago how effortless it is to lose a person's focus when it is fragmented by online networks and the 24-hour news. The author stated: “Perhaps as people's focus periods evolve the writing will have to adapt with them.” Yet as an individual who previously would doggedly complete every novel I started, I now regard it a personal freedom to set aside a story that I'm not connecting with.
Life's Short Span and the Wealth of Choices
I don't believe that this practice is due to a short focus – more accurately it comes from the feeling of time slipping through my fingers. I've consistently been struck by the monastic teaching: “Hold mortality daily in mind.” A different idea that we each have a just 4,000 weeks on this planet was as shocking to me as to everyone. However at what different point in our past have we ever had such instant access to so many mind-blowing works of art, whenever we desire? A glut of riches greets me in each bookstore and behind any device, and I want to be deliberate about where I channel my attention. Is it possible “not finishing” a novel (abbreviation in the book world for Did Not Finish) be not just a mark of a weak intellect, but a discerning one?
Choosing for Empathy and Self-awareness
Particularly at a era when the industry (consequently, commissioning) is still led by a specific demographic and its quandaries. While reading about characters distinct from us can help to strengthen the ability for empathy, we additionally read to think about our personal lives and role in the society. Before the titles on the racks better reflect the experiences, lives and issues of possible individuals, it might be quite challenging to keep their attention.
Modern Writing and Audience Attention
Of course, some writers are actually effectively writing for the “modern interest”: the concise style of selected recent works, the focused sections of additional writers, and the quick chapters of various contemporary stories are all a wonderful showcase for a briefer approach and method. Furthermore there is plenty of writing advice aimed at capturing a consumer: perfect that initial phrase, polish that opening chapter, increase the drama (further! further!) and, if creating mystery, introduce a mystery on the beginning. Such advice is completely solid – a potential agent, publisher or buyer will spend only a few valuable moments choosing whether or not to proceed. There's no point in being contrary, like the writer on a class I joined who, when questioned about the storyline of their manuscript, declared that “the meaning emerges about three-fourths of the way through”. No novelist should force their reader through a sequence of challenges in order to be understood.
Writing to Be Understood and Allowing Patience
Yet I do create to be comprehended, as much as that is feasible. On occasion that requires holding the consumer's hand, steering them through the story beat by economical beat. At other times, I've discovered, comprehension demands patience – and I must grant myself (along with other authors) the grace of exploring, of layering, of straying, until I find something authentic. One author argues for the novel finding fresh structures and that, rather than the standard dramatic arc, “different patterns might help us conceive innovative approaches to craft our narratives alive and authentic, continue producing our works fresh”.
Change of the Story and Contemporary Formats
In that sense, the two viewpoints agree – the novel may have to change to fit the contemporary reader, as it has constantly done since it began in the 1700s (in its current incarnation today). Perhaps, like past novelists, tomorrow's creators will go back to publishing incrementally their works in periodicals. The upcoming those authors may currently be sharing their content, chapter by chapter, on web-based platforms including those visited by many of frequent readers. Art forms change with the times and we should permit them.
More Than Brief Concentration
Yet we should not say that any changes are entirely because of reduced focus. If that was so, brief fiction compilations and very short stories would be considered much more {commercial|profitable|marketable
