Have you ever had a writer's block? As an author of any product of the written word, be it books, blogs, poems, scripts, etc., a writer's block is a horrible thing to experience. It can take days, months, even
years from the writing process and push back deadlines back into regions that are hard to get back from. What do you do when you're faced with writer's block? Mope in the corner? Throw your laptop and/or desktop computer through the window to its untimely demise? Rend your clothes and gnash your teeth? There's no need for that.
Nope, there's no need for any of that. All you need to do it turn to your local Encyclopedia of Catholic Saints and turn to Saint Francis de Sales.
Francis de Sales was born in 1567 to a noble family in France. He was the first of six children so he was given the best choices of schools, education, and his father expected him to hold a position in politics. However, while he was in university, Francis had a crisis of faith and became severely depressed after a discussion about predestination that lead the young man to firmly determine he was going to hell and he was irrevocably, eternally damned. However, his depression was short lived after he spent time in prayer and dedicated his life to God and realized that he
wasn't damned and that whatever destiny God had in store for him was
good, because God is good.
After graduating from university as a Doctor of Law and Theology, Francis eventually declined the path his father had laid out for him (military and political careers and an arranged marriage) and went back to university to study for a career with the church. He eventually became a bishop and did a lot of work with the church, patching up the holes caused by the Protestant Reformation. During this time, Francis' claim to fame became very apparent. He wrote numerous pamphlets, letters, essays, missives, and other writings for the church. He was also the first to write books about the faith and church for the common man; the practice of the day was to write for other bishops, priests, and those who were very learned people, and write it in Latin. Francis wrote for the less educated people of the time, and wrote it
in plain English French.
Francis died in 1622 and was
beatified in 1667. He was finally canonized, or made a saint, in 1877. There are multiple steps to becoming a saint, which can take many decades, if not centuries to complete. Francis was finally made a saint
255 years after he died. Whenever there are statues of the saint, he is shown either holding a book, the bible, or a quill and scroll, forever ready to write new spiritual nuggets of wisdom for those seeking guidance.
I grew interested in the idea of divine inspiration for my writing skills a few years ago when I was stuck in a massive bout of writer's block while working on my current Work In Progress,
Magic & Destiny. Being of the Christian faith, Lutheran in particular, I had been exposed to the various forms of Christianity. Namely, the Catholic
practice belief list of saints. I knew there were patron saints for travelers (St. Christopher), lost causes (St. Jude), and the ever popular St. Francis of Assisi (patron saint of animals/nature). There is a patron saint of TV (Clare of Assisi), dentists (St. Apollonia), and taxi drivers, (St. Fiacre), there has to be a patron saint of writers. And I finally found one.
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| My wall plaque of St. Francis |
Being of a more open mind when it comes to spiritual matters, I figured that maybe sending a few prayers or requests to Francis' way wouldn't hurt. What would it hurt if I got a little statue of Francis or something, a little reminder/prompt to help me write. I found a website that sold Catholic saint memorabilia and purchased a wall plaque of Saint Francis to hang up in my office, where I do most of my writing.
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| The medallion I wear |
Then, a few weeks after I bought that, a friend of mine randomly (and at the time anonymously) sent me a medallion of the saint. Only after having a few spazz moments online did she
finally reveal that she had sent it to me as a random act of awesomeness. Since the time of my plaque purchase and medallion wearing, I have found that my desire to write has increased. My WIP, Magic & Destiny, is still in some level of limbo, but I have been working on it more than I had in the past. I also began writing some short stories for anthologies, as completed the National Novel Writing Month challenge in November of 2011. Writing 50,000 words in 30 days is insane, but that's also more words written in one month than I have put down in one year. I have definitely felt my creativity flowing more and getting coming up with more and more ideas/brainstorms/inspirations to write in the last year or so of my ownership of these items.
What could be the explanation for this sudden increase of writing activity? Could it be the plaque and medallion? The fortunate byproduct of the power of suggestion? Maybe I have fallen victim of the placebo affect. Or... am I another one of the many people who have found guidance and power through the holy writing influence of St. Francis?
The world may never know.
This post was inspired by my
sister, a landscape designer and plant fanatic, who wrote a
post about Saint Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of her profession. Check out her blog over at
http://yesitalktoplants.blogspot.com if plants interest you, too!
