This is, at least, the best explanation I can find for why Brisingr (which I am choking through) is so insanely full of grammar mistakes. Most distinctly, the use of "if only he was an elf" instead of "if only he were an elf" subjective tense thingy. I bet the average is once per page!

Thoughts on this? Paolini's writing and the idea that a "super-star" author might be less edited.

And stop looking at the hole in my head.

In all seriousness, I think Zero is onto something here, though I think it's more of just not reading closely enough as opposed to "allowing" mistakes to slip through. Once a writer can make a certain amount of money off his/her product, there's less scrutiny 'cause the product will make money regardless of what a proofreader/editor fixes or doesn't fix.

On the notion of best-selling writers not scrutinizing their work...well, I'm inclined to agree. I think Stephen King passed beyond scrutiny fairly early on---a lot of his stuff seems extremely bloated and strangely plotted and written---and he tends to turn out better stuff when he submits to some kind of discipline (say, the "serial novel" format of "The Green Mile.")