There are some excellent storytellers with some excellent books on this site and you have NEVER HEARD OF MOST OF THEM. I am not talking about the people that got a million votes for finding every popular cliche on the planet and sticking them in on...
When I was a young reader I was always told by my reader friends that the mark of a great writer is the one that writes a book that you simply cannot put it down. The story was so amazing that it gripped you and would not let you go. You would forego sleep and eating until every page was sucked up and you were left a sprawling mess on the floor, left on your own to recover until the next book. As it turns out, my friends were full of crap.
The mark of a great writer is the one that writes the book that you HAVE to put down. The writer that writes such powerful and compelling stories in such gorgeous prose that you don't have the heart to take it all in one sitting. It could damage you. You don't want to, but you have to rest.
That is what happened to me when I first started reading "STEPS" by eliseanton. The writing immediately floored me. It's a caliber of writing that is rare, and not just on Wattpad. I have read many critically acclaimed memoirs that can't hold a candle to the way this writer tells her story. It's an almost impossible combination of elegance and rawness that grips you and doesn't let you go. You find yourself (or at least I do) constantly thinking in the back of your mind that you wish you could do this. You wish your words flowed this well. I gave up believing mine ever could.
And then the story! Have you ever hated someone and loved someone at the same time? It's tiring! Elise lived a life not for the faint at heart. When I read her chapters I want to compliment her writing and express my sadness for some of the ugliness life has dealt her and I don't know how to do that. I don't have the words for that.
The true mark of a great writer is the writer who writes a book that you have to put down. It drains you with both the beauty of the writing and the honesty of the humanity it offers. You have to step away and absorb the wonder of what you are reading for your own sake. Yes, you will come back. You have to come back. But only after you have healed.
STEPS is her memoir, but you will find yourself in it also. Trust me, you are in there.
Go read STEPS by Elise Anton. Wattpad thought enough of it to feature it and you need to go put it on your list of books to read. Elise is not only one of my favorite authors on Wattpad, she now holds a place on my list of favorite authors anywhere.
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