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Perfect grammar won't insure you'll get published.
Getting published doesn't mean you are great or even particularly good at writing.
Let's look at a good straw man to whack at, Dan Brown
After setting the place, the Louvre, and the time of the evening off by themselves, the first nine words of the text of The Da Vinci Code are "Renowned curator Jacques Sauniere staggered through the vaulted archway..."
I read someone the other day who moaned that having the first word being 'renowned' was a good indication the rest of the book was going to be no stylistic gem. The article griped about it as being an adjective that belonged in a newspaper story's lead not in the first sentence of a novel. It's pretty much an instant violation of the "show, don't tell" advice that all writers get. Brown is a horrible name dropper so he can't just have any old curator. It's got to be a renowned curator. Renowned in the circle of the world's museum curators is fairly limited as fame goes. Renown speaks of being highly honored in your field. Being a museum curator is an important job, but I get the mental image of one of those deadly dull awards banquets, where our Jacques has garnered the prize for year 199x for mustiest museum corner. Personally I'd feel better if Jaqcues were described somewhere as a renowned expert in some field like the history of Italian Renaissance sculpture or painting. But no, he's a renowned curator. The worst part of this is that in a book that barely comes in under 600 pages there is no need whatsoever for the first words of the book. We would certainly guess he works in the museum from what happens in the rest of the paragraph and in the second. Does it make a damn bit of difference whether he is renowned or an absolute unknown in the world of museum curators? No, it's just exposition that leads nowhere at this point in the story and exists for no reason other than hype.
That second paragraph starts off "As he anticipated, a thundering iron gate fell nearby, barricading the entrance to the suite." A thundering iron gate? What is a thundering iron gate? I'd gladly settle for "a thundering, iron gate." But really this is still just wrong. The gate presumably thunders as it falls, but otherwise it's not a thundering gate nor is it made of thundering iron. In this case saving a few words just leads to the unnecessary distraction of an awkward noun phrase.
The final paragraph of the first page starts. "Only fifteen feet away, outside the sealed gate, the mountainous silhouette of his attacker stared through the iron bars." How many weeks was this book on the bestseller list, and the guy doesn't know the definition of the word "silhouette?" Any number of words would have fit nicely "form," "shape," "mass," "figure," etc. But "silhouette" precludes us from seeing his eyes blinking, staring, rolling, going cross-eyed or doing anything else.
Just shows again, you don't have to be good to be rich and famous. ;o)
Getting published doesn't mean you are great or even particularly good at writing.
Let's look at a good straw man to whack at, Dan Brown
After setting the place, the Louvre, and the time of the evening off by themselves, the first nine words of the text of The Da Vinci Code are "Renowned curator Jacques Sauniere staggered through the vaulted archway..."
I read someone the other day who moaned that having the first word being 'renowned' was a good indication the rest of the book was going to be no stylistic gem. The article griped about it as being an adjective that belonged in a newspaper story's lead not in the first sentence of a novel. It's pretty much an instant violation of the "show, don't tell" advice that all writers get. Brown is a horrible name dropper so he can't just have any old curator. It's got to be a renowned curator. Renowned in the circle of the world's museum curators is fairly limited as fame goes. Renown speaks of being highly honored in your field. Being a museum curator is an important job, but I get the mental image of one of those deadly dull awards banquets, where our Jacques has garnered the prize for year 199x for mustiest museum corner. Personally I'd feel better if Jaqcues were described somewhere as a renowned expert in some field like the history of Italian Renaissance sculpture or painting. But no, he's a renowned curator. The worst part of this is that in a book that barely comes in under 600 pages there is no need whatsoever for the first words of the book. We would certainly guess he works in the museum from what happens in the rest of the paragraph and in the second. Does it make a damn bit of difference whether he is renowned or an absolute unknown in the world of museum curators? No, it's just exposition that leads nowhere at this point in the story and exists for no reason other than hype.
That second paragraph starts off "As he anticipated, a thundering iron gate fell nearby, barricading the entrance to the suite." A thundering iron gate? What is a thundering iron gate? I'd gladly settle for "a thundering, iron gate." But really this is still just wrong. The gate presumably thunders as it falls, but otherwise it's not a thundering gate nor is it made of thundering iron. In this case saving a few words just leads to the unnecessary distraction of an awkward noun phrase.
The final paragraph of the first page starts. "Only fifteen feet away, outside the sealed gate, the mountainous silhouette of his attacker stared through the iron bars." How many weeks was this book on the bestseller list, and the guy doesn't know the definition of the word "silhouette?" Any number of words would have fit nicely "form," "shape," "mass," "figure," etc. But "silhouette" precludes us from seeing his eyes blinking, staring, rolling, going cross-eyed or doing anything else.
Just shows again, you don't have to be good to be rich and famous. ;o)