Novels I Haven't Finished Enjoying Are Piling Up by My Bed. What If That's a Positive Sign?
This is slightly awkward to reveal, but let me explain. A handful of titles rest beside my bed, each only partly read. Inside my mobile device, I'm some distance through over three dozen listening titles, which pales compared to the 46 ebooks I've abandoned on my e-reader. This does not count the increasing collection of advance versions next to my coffee table, competing for blurbs, now that I work as a professional author in my own right.
Starting with Persistent Completion to Deliberate Abandonment
On the surface, these numbers might seem to confirm recent thoughts about modern focus. One novelist noted a short while ago how simple it is to distract a individual's focus when it is divided by digital platforms and the constant updates. They suggested: “It could be as people's focus periods evolve the fiction will have to adapt with them.” Yet as an individual who used to persistently complete whatever book I began, I now regard it a individual choice to set aside a story that I'm not enjoying.
Life's Finite Duration and the Glut of Choices
I wouldn't think that this tendency is due to a limited attention span – instead it stems from the sense of time slipping through my fingers. I've consistently been affected by the spiritual maxim: “Hold the end daily before your eyes.” One point that we each have a just 4,000 weeks on this Earth was as horrifying to me as to everyone. And yet at what different time in history have we ever had such instant entry to so many amazing masterpieces, at any moment we choose? A surplus of riches meets me in each library and behind any digital platform, and I aim to be purposeful about where I direct my energy. Could “not finishing” a book (shorthand in the book world for Incomplete) be not just a sign of a limited mind, but a discerning one?
Choosing for Empathy and Reflection
Especially at a era when publishing (consequently, acquisition) is still led by a specific social class and its issues. While engaging with about characters different from us can help to strengthen the muscle for understanding, we furthermore select stories to think about our own lives and position in the world. Before the titles on the shelves more fully represent the identities, stories and interests of potential individuals, it might be extremely hard to keep their attention.
Modern Storytelling and Consumer Attention
Naturally, some writers are indeed effectively writing for the “modern interest”: the concise writing of certain current novels, the focused pieces of others, and the brief sections of various recent stories are all a wonderful example for a more concise form and style. Furthermore there is no shortage of writing tips aimed at capturing a reader: perfect that initial phrase, improve that opening chapter, raise the tension (further! more!) and, if crafting crime, introduce a dead body on the beginning. Such suggestions is completely solid – a possible agent, house or reader will spend only a several precious moments deciding whether or not to forge ahead. It is no point in being difficult, like the writer on a writing course I participated in who, when confronted about the plot of their novel, announced that “it all becomes clear about 75% of the into the story”. No author should subject their follower through a set of challenges in order to be comprehended.
Crafting to Be Accessible and Allowing Time
But I certainly create to be understood, as much as that is feasible. At times that requires holding the reader's hand, steering them through the story step by succinct beat. At other times, I've understood, insight requires time – and I must allow myself (along with other creators) the freedom of meandering, of adding depth, of deviating, until I find something true. One author argues for the story developing fresh structures and that, as opposed to the traditional dramatic arc, “different patterns might enable us envision innovative methods to craft our stories vital and real, keep creating our works fresh”.
Evolution of the Story and Current Formats
In that sense, both viewpoints converge – the fiction may have to adapt to fit the modern audience, as it has repeatedly achieved since it first emerged in the historical period (in its current incarnation today). Maybe, like past authors, tomorrow's authors will return to serialising their works in periodicals. The future these authors may already be sharing their writing, chapter by chapter, on online platforms like those used by countless of regular visitors. Art forms evolve with the era and we should allow them.
More Than Short Attention Spans
Yet let us not say that any changes are all because of limited attention spans. Were that true, short story anthologies and flash fiction would be considered far more {commercial|profitable|marketable
