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This is a bit uncomfortable to confess, but let me explain. A handful of titles wait next to my bed, each partially read. Within my phone, I'm some distance through thirty-six audio novels, which seems small alongside the nearly fifty digital books I've set aside on my digital device. The situation doesn't include the increasing stack of early versions next to my living room table, striving for endorsements, now that I am a published author myself.

From Determined Reading to Deliberate Abandonment

Initially, these numbers might appear to support recent comments about modern focus. A writer observed recently how simple it is to lose a reader's attention when it is fragmented by social media and the 24-hour news. They suggested: “It could be as readers' attention spans shift the writing will have to adjust with them.” Yet as someone who previously would doggedly complete every title I picked up, I now regard it a personal freedom to set aside a book that I'm not in the mood for.

Our Short Duration and the Wealth of Options

I don't believe that this practice is a result of a brief attention span – more accurately it relates to the awareness of life moving swiftly. I've often been impressed by the spiritual principle: “Hold mortality every day in mind.” Another point that we each have a mere 4,000 weeks on this planet was as sobering to me as to anyone else. And yet at what previous time in human history have we ever had such immediate access to so many mind-blowing creative works, whenever we desire? A glut of riches awaits me in any bookstore and on any screen, and I strive to be purposeful about where I direct my attention. Could “not finishing” a novel (term in the literary community for Unfinished) be not a sign of a weak intellect, but a discerning one?

Selecting for Understanding and Self-awareness

Particularly at a time when the industry (and therefore, acquisition) is still dominated by a specific social class and its quandaries. Although exploring about individuals distinct from ourselves can help to strengthen the muscle for understanding, we also select stories to think about our personal journeys and role in the universe. Until the titles on the displays more fully reflect the experiences, realities and concerns of potential audiences, it might be extremely challenging to hold their focus.

Current Authorship and Reader Engagement

Naturally, some writers are actually skillfully crafting for the “today's attention span”: the concise writing of some recent books, the compact fragments of additional writers, and the brief chapters of several contemporary stories are all a impressive showcase for a briefer form and style. And there is no shortage of author guidance aimed at securing a audience: perfect that opening line, polish that opening chapter, increase the stakes (further! higher!) and, if creating crime, place a victim on the opening. This guidance is all solid – a potential agent, publisher or buyer will spend only a several precious seconds deciding whether or not to continue. There's no benefit in being difficult, like the individual on a class I attended who, when questioned about the plot of their novel, stated that “it all becomes clear about three-fourths of the into the story”. Not a single author should put their follower through a sequence of difficult tasks in order to be understood.

Writing to Be Clear and Giving Time

Yet I certainly create to be clear, as to the extent as that is feasible. On occasion that demands leading the audience's interest, guiding them through the plot point by efficient beat. Sometimes, I've discovered, comprehension requires time – and I must grant me (as well as other creators) the permission of exploring, of building, of straying, until I discover something meaningful. A particular thinker contends for the fiction discovering fresh structures and that, rather than the traditional narrative arc, “alternative patterns might assist us conceive novel methods to create our stories alive and true, keep creating our works fresh”.

Evolution of the Novel and Contemporary Platforms

In that sense, both perspectives converge – the fiction may have to evolve to suit the contemporary audience, as it has continually achieved since it began in the historical period (in its current incarnation today). Maybe, like previous novelists, future creators will revert to publishing incrementally their books in periodicals. The future such creators may already be releasing their content, chapter by chapter, on web-based services like those visited by millions of frequent readers. Art forms evolve with the times and we should allow them.

Not Just Brief Attention Spans

However let us not assert that any evolutions are entirely because of reduced attention spans. Were that true, brief fiction compilations and very short stories would be regarded considerably more {commercial|profitable|marketable