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It's somewhat embarrassing to confess, but let me explain. Several titles rest beside my bed, every one incompletely read. On my smartphone, I'm partway through over three dozen listening titles, which looks minor compared to the 46 digital books I've abandoned on my e-reader. The situation fails to count the increasing collection of advance copies beside my side table, competing for blurbs, now that I work as a published author in my own right.

Starting with Persistent Completion to Deliberate Letting Go

At first glance, these stats might appear to support contemporary comments about today's focus. A writer observed recently how easy it is to break a individual's focus when it is divided by online networks and the constant updates. He stated: “It could be as readers' focus periods evolve the fiction will have to change with them.” Yet as someone who used to doggedly complete whatever title I began, I now consider it a personal freedom to set aside a novel that I'm not in the mood for.

Life's Limited Time and the Wealth of Possibilities

I do not feel that this tendency is due to a brief focus – more accurately it stems from the sense of life moving swiftly. I've always been struck by the spiritual maxim: “Place the end daily in mind.” Another idea that we each have a only limited time on this world was as shocking to me as to anyone else. However at what other point in history have we ever had such immediate availability to so many mind-blowing masterpieces, whenever we desire? A wealth of riches awaits me in each library and behind any device, and I strive to be intentional about where I channel my time. Might “DNF-ing” a novel (shorthand in the book world for Did Not Finish) be not a sign of a poor focus, but a thoughtful one?

Choosing for Empathy and Insight

Particularly at a period when publishing (and therefore, commissioning) is still dominated by a certain social class and its issues. Although reading about people different from ourselves can help to build the capacity for understanding, we additionally choose books to reflect on our own lives and place in the world. Before the works on the racks better reflect the experiences, lives and interests of possible readers, it might be quite difficult to keep their attention.

Current Authorship and Audience Interest

Of course, some authors are actually successfully writing for the “modern interest”: the short prose of selected modern novels, the compact pieces of additional writers, and the short chapters of numerous contemporary books are all a impressive demonstration for a shorter style and method. Additionally there is plenty of writing advice aimed at securing a consumer: hone that initial phrase, enhance that opening chapter, raise the drama (further! further!) and, if writing mystery, put a dead body on the opening. Such guidance is completely sound – a prospective publisher, editor or reader will use only a several valuable moments choosing whether or not to proceed. There's no point in being obstinate, like the individual on a writing course I participated in who, when challenged about the narrative of their novel, declared that “it all becomes clear about three-quarters of the into the story”. Not a single novelist should force their audience through a sequence of challenges in order to be understood.

Creating to Be Accessible and Giving Space

Yet I absolutely compose to be clear, as much as that is achievable. At times that demands guiding the reader's interest, steering them through the narrative point by succinct point. Occasionally, I've realised, comprehension demands patience – and I must allow myself (along with other authors) the grace of wandering, of layering, of digressing, until I find something true. A particular thinker contends for the fiction finding new forms and that, as opposed to the conventional dramatic arc, “alternative structures might help us conceive new ways to craft our tales alive and true, continue creating our books novel”.

Evolution of the Novel and Current Formats

In that sense, both perspectives agree – the novel may have to change to fit the contemporary consumer, as it has constantly done since it first emerged in the 1700s (as we know it today). Maybe, like past authors, tomorrow's authors will return to releasing in parts their novels in newspapers. The future such writers may currently be releasing their work, part by part, on web-based services like those accessed by millions of regular visitors. Creative mediums change with the times and we should let them.

Not Just Limited Concentration

Yet do not assert that all shifts are completely because of shorter concentration. If that was so, short story collections and flash fiction would be regarded much more {commercial|profitable|marketable