I came across this study that claims the average person has a shorter attention span than that of a goldfish. Eight seconds. This means most people tend to lose concentration in less than ten seconds.

As an experiment, I read the above paragraph out loud. It took about 10 seconds to complete.

That means I just lost you.

At least the goldfish will swim around its bowl and come back to the same spot. The average reader will have found something more enticing to read.

Watch people standing in line or anywhere they have to wait. It appears few can go any length of time without checking their phone to see if there is a new update.

What is the writer to do?

You face an enormous challenge as a writer in this age of unyielding, unending media. You are competing every moment for your words to be the ones that are chosen. The job is to communicate using those words. Whether you’re a novelist with a story or a nonfiction writer exploring an idea, you must grab the reader’s attention and never let it go. You can’t use clickbait headlines once they’ve already clicked through to read your words. You aren’t using video (unless you wrote the film’s script). So, what do you do?

Compel

Compel (kəmˈpel – verb) means to force or oblige (someone) to do something. For example, a judge can compel a witness to appear using a summons to court.

A writer can compel a reader by writing something that won’t let their attention be distracted. You aren’t forcing them against their will; instead, you draw them into your words to share the experience.

Create

It’s easy to say, “Be creative,” but it’s harder to actually do. Christopher Booker has a 700-page book called The Seven Basic Plots. If that is true, then how can yours be unique?

This is a struggle. The thousands of proposals, queries, and verbal pitches I’ve heard over the years prove the point. That is why your proposal needs a “competition” section to help distinguish your project from the others already on the market.

Yet, do not be dismayed. One idea may not work, but the next might. Read widely. Observe life and culture. Discover what people need most.

At the same time, do not ignore the tried and true. The other day I read a science fiction space opera. It had a great opening with the main hero suffering through his fifth year in a dank prison on board a ship. But as I kept reading, I started to recognize some common genre tropes. The hero was an illegitimate son of a duke. The empire was in turmoil, ruled by a weak but arrogant emperor. Secrets were kept, political intrigue unfolded, a princess was forbidden, and hidden wealth lay beneath the surface. All pieces of a story that I could almost predict how it would end. But I kept reading because the “tried and true” still resonated. It was published by a major publisher, and the writer had good skills. Was it “creative”? Not in the sense of a groundbreaking, never-before-published idea. But it worked as entertainment.

Carry On

Writing is not an option for you. Especially if you are called to the task. Therefore, you must keep striving to improve your craft. Stay ahead of the curve by keeping in touch with your readers and what makes them read.

Statistics show that 7.5 million posts (blogs, social media updates, or messages) will be published …. today.

I’m just glad you stayed with me to finish this one!