Actually, I seem to recall that Alfred was rather fond of the double negative, a perfectly acceptable practice in his day that would have modern pedants foaming at the mouth.

You can’t stick to the old rules of writing in order to satiate the new readers who have less time to read more.

Gone are the days of leisure reading, now everyone prefers quick reads. And a good show at paragraphs confirms the same.

Consider physics: when you’re ickle, they tell you an atom is the smallest thing in the whole wide world. Then when you get a bit bigger, they tell you that atoms contain protons and neutrons and electrons – them be smaller. And if you’re bright enough not to get kicked out at the age of sixteen, they tell you about quarks.

It’s a steady stream of lies. And that’s all there is to it.

I completely agree about the question of musicality. It’s so hard to define, but you know it when you hear it – or don’t! In fact, I’ve been meaning to blog about the connections between music and writing for a while – I just wish my musical knowledge were better.

My flute teacher tells me that, despite my protestations about not being able to sing, I have a good musical ear. I’m sure it comes from being a writer.

Interestingly, in music, too, you often get a better result if you step away from the written text and play by ear.