#IgnoringTheBoring
The Lies You Were Told
By Bella, Editor-in-Chief
Grotesque rumors have circulated suggesting that people just aren’t reading anymore and literature ought to be delivered in a particular manner. This is entirely not true.
Print sales for the US are up and are escalating at record levels in the UK.[1]
Albeit readers perhaps have more treacherous schedules, which greedily evaporate their personal time, this is apparently not an indicator that people have stopped reading. One might even concede to the gossip that we have slightly shortened attention spans, or we read in the vagaries of time. Perhaps. This does not mean a lesser appetite for literature.
However, it does tell us one thing. One must meet the reader where they travel, and with inspiration.
Whilst the world sits back watching in horror—what used to be entertaining prose being bled of all its exciting elements—we have positioned ourselves for rebellion. Readers who are time-poor must be provided with accessible formats.
Go on now, read a few short stories. Are they punchy? Clever? Do they infuriate you? Do they make you laugh, cry or provoke thought? Some maybe, but most are written in the way that makes one feel like a salt mine and a sandpit had a love child.
No wonder people aren’t reading anymore!
Writing has become so formulaic, dry, and “rule following” that there is no longer entertainment in reading most of what is published these days. This is not because great writers are not out there. It seems to be a phenomenon set in motion ONLY because boundaries have been insinuated on both the reader and the writer which, quite frankly, neither want. Can’t we demand more?
Shortform articles have merely lowered the threshold for elegant readers who still have an appetite for reading but have abandoned dry prose.[2] What would one expect when readers are bogged down with busy work schedules, poorly attended personal time, and boredom on page one? One needs only to look at the success in number of The Booker Prize Quick Read launch!
From the horse’s mouth—statistics from The Reading Agency’s & The Booker Prize Short Read data—here are the problems with reading:
1. 55% read less than they intended (basically all of us)
2. 35% find it hard to finish (a CLUE for clever writers...shorter is better)
3. 33% said a “quick and easy read” would help them read more (DING, DING, DING)
All is not lost. We have our answer! We are just too busy massaging our own egos to listen. Meet the reader with their desires.
These are signals (or statistics) that readers are coming back.
What we want as readers is a writer’s rebellion!
Write what is amazing…write what is beautiful. There is a reason that magazines who defied popularity among publishers became so successful. They ignored the cooperate shillings that were fed to the public and offered something unique!
Vanity Fair did it by ignoring the boring! Even The New Yorker admitted as much.
So, let us do the same! We too can begin…
#IgnoringTheBoring
This is a call for readers to demand more, but it is also a call for writers to make writing exciting again!
PUBLISH THE OPPOSITE OF MASS MARKET!
