Comsie Posted October 11, 2008 Posted October 11, 2008 There was a time, not so long ago, when books were actually printed on paper! Hehehe, hard to believe, right? I'm serious, it's true! And the books were huge, with long, adventurous stories that would fill the reader with wonder and amazement for days or even weeks after starting that first page. A little bit has changed since then. Books are online, stories seem to be getting shorter, and readers seem to be much more demanding of authors to 'hurry up and get to the point'. It's almost like folks are quickly skimming through pages and pages of character and plot building just to get to something exciting. And once they get their fill, they start skimming again. And in response, there are a lot of authors who have been shortening a lot of details and trying to keep the 'action', the 'sex', the 'conflict', going at all times. Every author wants to be true to their original idea, but they certainly don't want to 'bore' their audience. Nor do they want their most intimate text 'overlooked' by those in a hurry for something....um..."good"! Hehehe! So, I ask you guys...are reader habits beginning to change the way stories are being written? Are we all becoming a part of 'the quickening', where movie scripts need a big bang every 10 pages, TV sitcoms need a laugh every 19 seconds, and if you're writing...and go more than three pages without something 'profound' going on...you risk losing the attention span of your readers? Maybe there are still some patient readers out there these days...but would books like Brahm Stoker's Dracula, War And Peace, or even Lord of the Rings, make the same impact these days, when the audience is looking for thrills faster and more often than ever before? What do you think?
Tiger Posted October 11, 2008 Posted October 11, 2008 I personally like novel-length stories. I have no idea why so many people lack appreciation for them. I read a novel-length story in a day in the summer of 2007, and it was great. I think, as both an author and a reader, reading novels is a truly enriching activity. However, I doubt I would read one of Stephen King's books, but his are longer than most. I have heard that he writes, on average, 7 pages a day. Then again, he can afford to stay home and write all the time. It makes me a little jealous.
Site Administrator Graeme Posted October 12, 2008 Site Administrator Posted October 12, 2008 I believe the problem is in the method of publication, not the stories themselves. By posting stories in a serialised form, it changes the relationship with the reader. They no longer control how much they want to read at any given time -- they are forced to stop at a particular point, and the author is semi-forced to do something try to make sure the reader will come back later to find the next part. That is a very different paradigm to a print novel, where the entire novel is available at once and the reader chooses the point where they'll take a break. It is that different paradigm that introduces changes, not the electronic media. It's not the changing reader habit, it's the changing publishing habit.
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