The Right to Not Finish a Book; A Sign of a Discerning Mind, Not Distraction
IBNA International Service – Elaheh Shams: Five unfinished novels by the bed and dozens of half-read audio and e-books on phones and Kindles are not signs of a cluttered mind; perhaps they are a condensed reminder of time’s limitations. The author notes that the old Benedictine teaching – ‘Keep death daily before your eyes’ – has gained new meaning today; in a world where one can choose from thousands of artistic works at any moment, perhaps putting down a book is a conscious decision and a natural right.
Hannah Thomas Ooze, author of *Who Wants to Live Forever*, reflects Ian Rankin’s view; he recently said that if people’s attention spans have shortened, literature must also adapt. But Ooze believes this change is not a decline of the mind but a response to the feeling of slipping time and the desire for conscious choice.
She further notes that the publishing industry is still dominated by specific social classes and their concerns, and as long as books do not reflect the lives and worries of readers, expecting to maintain their attention is not easy.
Examples of successful authors in shorter formats demonstrate this change: Patricia Lockwood in *No One Is Talking About This* with tweet-like prose, Jenny Offill in *Dept. of Speculation* with condensed fragments, and Chris Whitaker in *All the Colours of the Dark* with short chapters, write for today’s audience. Technical advice follows the same line: electrify the opening sentence, write the first chapter clearly, and raise the stakes. In an age of minute-long judgments, an author cannot expect a reader to achieve full understanding only after a hundred pages.
Ooze in a more personal section of this essay speaks of her own experience: sometimes one must take the reader’s hand and lead them step by step, and sometimes allow for wandering and layering until a truth is revealed. She refers to Jane Alison’s view in *Meander, Spiral, Explode*, who believes that today’s novels should move away from the classic narrative arc and find new patterns for storytelling.
Consequently, both Rankin and Alison agree on one point: literature must stay up-to-date, just as it has constantly evolved from the 18th century to today. Perhaps future authors will publish their works chapter by chapter on platforms like Wattpad; a logical continuation of the serialized tradition of Charles Dickens and Helen Fielding.
However, Ooze warns that not all these changes should be attributed to shortening attention spans; if that were the case, short story collections should outsell long novels. Such a definitive conclusion might lead to surrendering to artificial content and virtual reality, which no author desires.
Finally, the author expresses her concern about attention spans in writing: to focus, she flips her hourglass and sits silently on a Zoom call with other writers, watching their steady typing to concentrate on her second novel. If a newspaper ever wants to print a serialized novel, she is ready.
