# Writing in an era of short/impatient reader attention spans **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 2, 2019, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-in-an-era-of-short-impatient-reader-attention-spans/833368 "2019-05-02T15:02:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-in-an-era-of-short-impatient-reader-attention-spans/833368/1 "2019-05-02T15:02:40Z")
Any Dopers here have needed to calibrate their writing these days (fiction mainly) to accommodate readers who have less and less patience to read anything long? I’ve been told that a great many readers, especially youth, have their eyes glaze over instantly if something doesn’t immediately grab their attention or if they cannot immediately grasp what a paragraph “is” within a moment. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-in-an-era-of-short-impatient-reader-attention-spans/833368/2 "2019-05-02T15:07:19Z")
tl;dr ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-in-an-era-of-short-impatient-reader-attention-spans/833368/3 "2019-05-02T15:12:53Z")
Those people aren’t your audience, readers are. (As it has always been.) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-in-an-era-of-short-impatient-reader-attention-spans/833368/4 "2019-05-02T15:19:08Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Any Dopers here have needed to calibrate their writing these days (fiction mainly) to accommodate readers who have less and less patience to read anything long? I’ve been told that a great many readers, especially youth, have their eyes glaze over instantly if something doesn’t immediately grab their attention or if they cannot immediately grasp what a paragraph “is” within a moment. I’d like to see a cite. This sounds like the usual complaining about how the young generation isn’t living up to the high standards that we felt we held when we were their age. And their music. How can they listen to that crap? I look at multi-volume series like Harry Potter and Hunger Games and Percy Jackson or even Twilight (not to mention message boards like this) and I’d estimate that young people are probably reading more than my peers were when I was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-in-an-era-of-short-impatient-reader-attention-spans/833368/5 "2019-05-02T16:46:31Z")
When the Hugo awards were established, a novel was defined as having at least 40,000 words. Today, [the average novel is around 90,000 words](https://thewritelife.com/how-many-words-in-a-novel/). ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-in-an-era-of-short-impatient-reader-attention-spans/833368/6 "2019-05-02T16:51:22Z")
[Here](https://brettmichaelorr.wordpress.com/2015/02/09/word-counts-of-popular-ya-books/) are word counts for some popular YA books. The first of the _Twilight_ books was nearly 119,000 words. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-in-an-era-of-short-impatient-reader-attention-spans/833368/7 "2019-05-02T17:04:15Z")
Well, not just about raw word count/totals, but also, how a book has to be written - much more attention-grabby. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-in-an-era-of-short-impatient-reader-attention-spans/833368/8 "2019-05-02T17:20:57Z")
According to Lee Child, a “thriller” should have 100k words. (Those YA statistics seem pretty consistent with that.) He obviously has his own formula for writing the first chapter, but I’m not aware that there are any strict universal rules, nor that kids only like thrillers. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-in-an-era-of-short-impatient-reader-attention-spans/833368/9 "2019-05-02T17:21:43Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Well, not just about raw word count/totals, but also, how a book has to be written - much more attention-grabby. I don’t think this is any more true now than it used to be ten or twenty or fifty years ago. But it probably is especially true for new writers, as opposed to those that already have fans. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-in-an-era-of-short-impatient-reader-attention-spans/833368/10 "2019-05-02T17:24:14Z")
I don’t know if it’s declining desire to read long works, or the economics of printing, or the buying habits of publishers, but an agent I contacted won’t touch my historical non-fiction book at 120,000 words. They want it cut to 60,000. This isn’t exactly a book filled with needless verbiage. I went through three stages of progressively more painful cutting. I got it down to under 80,000 words, but it required the excision of the introduction, and chapters I thought necessary for background, and the afterword. It was positively painful. We’ll see what happens. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-in-an-era-of-short-impatient-reader-attention-spans/833368/11 "2019-05-02T17:42:29Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Well, not just about raw word count/totals, but also, how a book has to be written - much more attention-grabby. The existence of pulp fiction (the actual genre not the movie) argues against the idea that yesterday’s readers were into deeper literature than today’s are. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-in-an-era-of-short-impatient-reader-attention-spans/833368/12 "2019-05-02T17:50:00Z")
It hasn’t affected how I write. Even if there is a trend towards reduced attention spans (and I don’t know if this is the case), it would have a tiny, tiny fraction of the impact on your chance of writing a successful book as the quality of your writing would. In short, try to write a good book. Trying to tailor it towards any perception of trends is much more likely to reduce the quality of the book than give a tiny increase in marginal sales due to that trend, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-in-an-era-of-short-impatient-reader-attention-spans/833368/13 "2019-05-02T18:47:20Z")
Just write the book you’ve always wanted to read and you’ll be fine. The readers I know are fucking voracious, and they can handle complex paragraphs and subtle themes. Unless you have a story that can turn nonreaders into readers, don’t worry about the nonreaders. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-in-an-era-of-short-impatient-reader-attention-spans/833368/14 "2019-05-02T19:11:12Z")
Hey, they initially turned down “Swann’s Way”. Just saying. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-in-an-era-of-short-impatient-reader-attention-spans/833368/15 "2019-05-02T20:50:30Z")
Hasn’t affected my writing at all. My books average over 100,000 words each, and my readers love the length. My second-to-last one was 170,000 words (which is \*\*really \*\*long for urban fantasy). Didn’t get one complaint. Occasionally they complain when I make them too short! ---
**Author:** ![txjim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f07891/32.png) [@txjim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/txjim)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-in-an-era-of-short-impatient-reader-attention-spans/833368/16 "2019-05-02T21:45:01Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I don’t know if it’s declining desire to read long works, or the economics of printing, or the buying habits of publishers, but an agent I contacted won’t touch my historical non-fiction book at 120,000 words. They want it cut to 60,000. > This isn’t exactly a book filled with needless verbiage. I went through three stages of progressively more painful cutting. I got it down to under 80,000 words, but it required the excision of the introduction, and chapters I thought necessary for background, and the afterword. It was positively painful. We’ll see what happens. Do they require this in anticipation of establishing a series? Seems like most SF these days are part of a set. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-in-an-era-of-short-impatient-reader-attention-spans/833368/17 "2019-05-02T21:48:32Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Any Dopers here have needed to calibrate their writing these days (fiction mainly) to accommodate readers who have less and less patience to read anything long? I’ve been told that a great many readers, especially youth, have their eyes glaze over instantly if something doesn’t immediately grab their attention or if they cannot immediately grasp what a paragraph “is” within a moment. This has always been the case. That’s why there’s an “inverted pyramid” style for newspapers or SparkNotes and “skipping to the last chapter,” for fiction. It’s true that email and Twitter have shortened the average attention span, but they didn’t start it. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-in-an-era-of-short-impatient-reader-attention-spans/833368/18 "2019-05-02T21:54:33Z")
> [@txjim](#): > > Do they require this in anticipation of establishing a series? Seems like most SF these days are part of a set. Every genre and subgenre has its own expected range for length. Romance, for instance, is generally between 60K and 80K. Mystery is about 75K to 90K, but a Cozy Mystery is closer to Romance in length. Horror can be most any length, but under 100K is preferred. Science Fiction or Fantasy can be a beast, often weighing in in excess of 125K (agents and publishers sometimes give SF/F side-eye if it’s less than about 90K). No idea how non-fiction is handled. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2019, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-in-an-era-of-short-impatient-reader-attention-spans/833368/19 "2019-05-03T11:52:42Z")
> [@txjim](#): > > Do they require this in anticipation of establishing a series? Seems like most SF these days are part of a set. It does, indeed. Something I have certainly encountered. But, as stated in what you quoted, this was _historical non-fiction_, so you wouldn’t think that would apply. Ironically, I could easily extend this into a series, and wouldn’t mind doing so. but nobody asked.