Words.

My mom and I were discussing stories today. What makes the good ones stand apart from the bad? My guess is the passion that the author writes with. When the author can make you feel the pain and the joy; make you see the beauty in the smallest of things; make you fall in love with the characters. That's passion. That's true writing. The ability to bare yourself to the world on paper, not afraid to show how you feel, not holding back. The ability to show yourself as you are. You can always see glimpses of the author in the books. And in the really good books, you see glimpses of yourself. What is it that sets apart the brilliant writers from the mediocre? Is it that they feel pain in a way others don't? Is it that their writing is a healing balm to their wounds? Do words provide them the solace that they can't find elsewhere?  Whatever it is, to be able to write with such beauty is a gift from God. To be able to see such beauty in so much adversity is a gift from God. And lastly to be able to paint vivid pictures in the mind of the reader with nothing but words is the greatest gift of all.