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It's a bit uncomfortable to reveal, but let me explain. A handful of titles wait beside my bed, all incompletely read. Inside my phone, I'm midway through thirty-six audiobooks, which pales compared to the forty-six ebooks I've set aside on my digital device. This doesn't count the increasing pile of advance versions next to my living room table, vying for endorsements, now that I am a established novelist personally.

Starting with Determined Finishing to Intentional Letting Go

Initially, these numbers might look to support recently expressed thoughts about modern concentration. An author commented recently how effortless it is to lose a person's concentration when it is scattered by online networks and the 24-hour news. He suggested: “Maybe as people's concentration shift the fiction will have to adapt with them.” But as an individual who previously would stubbornly get through whatever novel I started, I now consider it a personal freedom to stop reading a novel that I'm not in the mood for.

The Short Time and the Wealth of Choices

I wouldn't think that this tendency is due to a short focus – rather more it relates to the feeling of existence slipping through my fingers. I've consistently been impressed by the monastic teaching: “Place the end daily before your eyes.” Another idea that we each have a just 4,000 weeks on this Earth was as sobering to me as to everyone. But at what other time in human history have we ever had such instant availability to so many amazing creative works, at any moment we want? A glut of riches meets me in any bookshop and within any digital platform, and I strive to be deliberate about where I channel my energy. Is it possible “not finishing” a novel (abbreviation in the literary community for Incomplete) be not a mark of a weak intellect, but a discerning one?

Reading for Understanding and Reflection

Notably at a time when publishing (and therefore, selection) is still dominated by a particular social class and its quandaries. Even though exploring about characters different from ourselves can help to develop the ability for compassion, we furthermore read to reflect on our individual lives and position in the society. Until the works on the shelves better depict the identities, realities and issues of possible audiences, it might be extremely hard to maintain their attention.

Contemporary Storytelling and Consumer Engagement

Naturally, some authors are successfully creating for the “contemporary focus”: the short prose of some current novels, the compact pieces of others, and the brief chapters of several recent stories are all a excellent demonstration for a shorter approach and technique. And there is plenty of writing advice designed for grabbing a consumer: refine that opening line, improve that start, raise the stakes (higher! more!) and, if crafting mystery, put a victim on the opening. That advice is all good – a prospective publisher, editor or reader will spend only a few valuable moments deciding whether or not to proceed. There's no benefit in being obstinate, like the individual on a class I joined who, when questioned about the narrative of their novel, announced that “the meaning emerges about three-quarters of the into the story”. No novelist should subject their audience through a sequence of challenges in order to be grasped.

Writing to Be Understood and Granting Time

Yet I do write to be comprehended, as far as that is achievable. Sometimes that needs guiding the consumer's hand, directing them through the plot step by succinct step. At other times, I've realised, insight requires perseverance – and I must grant myself (along with other creators) the grace of exploring, of building, of deviating, until I discover something true. An influential writer argues for the novel developing fresh structures and that, rather than the standard dramatic arc, “different patterns might assist us envision innovative methods to craft our narratives vital and real, persist in making our novels original”.

Evolution of the Novel and Contemporary Mediums

In that sense, each opinions align – the story may have to change to fit the contemporary consumer, as it has constantly achieved since it originated in the 1700s (as we know it currently). Maybe, like past authors, coming authors will return to serialising their works in newspapers. The upcoming those writers may already be publishing their writing, part by part, on online platforms such as those visited by many of regular visitors. Creative mediums change with the times and we should allow them.

Beyond Short Focus

But let us not claim that any evolutions are all because of limited concentration. If that were the case, short story compilations and flash fiction would be viewed considerably more {commercial|profitable|marketable