5 Principles of Holy Writing ~ The Wisdom of Frances de Sales

by Wendy Murray

Saint Francis de Sales (1567 – 1622), was a French bishop whose views about "holy imagination" redefined devotion in his time, especially as it is expressed in the arts. His wisdom is timeless and serves as an apt guide for those in the literary realm whose writing voice also possesses spiritual sensibilities.

His book Finding God Wherever You Are offers helpful lessons for writers and artists of any time who find themselves entrenched in the struggles of the human situation:

1. Make decisions and then act.  "Our spirit should give vent whole-heartedly to these good movements of the will . . . But do not linger too long with general movements of the will. You have to change them into deliberate decisions."

2. Stay honorable. "The really patient servant of God bears equanimity of the humiliating trials as well as the honorable."

3. Small mistakes at the beginning only grow larger if left unchecked: "Small mistakes made at the beginning of any project grown infinitely great as it progress . . . . Hence, you should know, before everything else, what is the virtue of devotion."

4. Protect your environment: "Nothing calms down an angry elephant so quickly as a the sight of a little lamb, and nothing breaks the force of cannon balls so easily as wool."

5. Think through projects carefully, choose them clear-headedly, and stay the course. "We are not to question our choice, but devotedly, calmly, steadfastly keep it up, carry it through. Although difficulties, temptations and many different things may beset our path, to make us wonder if we have done right, we are to remain resolute and take no notice . . . . Once our decision has been taken with God's help, we need never fear but that God will aid us to carry it through."

Other books by Frances de Sales include:

The Art of Loving God

Finding God's Will for You

Introduction to the Devout Life












(See Plogger's Pope Francis' call to be Digital Citizens, Message for the memorial service of Saint Frances de Sales)

5 Tips for Developing Good Reading Habits

It is wondrous to enjoy the life-giving and grounding habit of becoming a reader. It is an excellent adventure! Here are some helpful tips:

1. Pace yourself. Each book has its own process of discovery and interior animation.

2. Overthrow distractions. There will always be something else you can do. But, upon my word, remember: reading is doing something. It is feeding the mind and expanding soul at the same time.

3. Give yourself permission to find which genre animates you, then delve into it. Also, simply because a friend says a book was "the best book I've read" and has lent it to you does not mean it will be the best you have ever read. You are not obliged to like what other people like.  In any case, please remember to return the loaned book!

4. Alternate reading between new offerings and proven classics. Time is the true test of all good writing.

5. Get a good chair or a comfy couch with a solid end table (where you will stack your books) and good lighting. This is your happy place.

Slow down.  Pick up a good book.

Writing Advice: 5 Reality Checks for Aspiring Writers

Five Reality Checks for Aspiring Writers

1)  Keeping working even if the market is capricious. Ultimately, staying power defines the writer who succeeds.

2) Social networking for book marketing is helpful, but don't fret over it. Facebook is proving less helpful with its recent algorithm protocols, which determine who sees your posts and who doesn't. Twitter is helpful and LinkedIn is robust. In the end your book will stand on its own terms ~ so don't be discouraged if you don't have a FB page or web site. (Follow Eqplogger on Twitter.)

3) For most publishers the bottom line is the bottom line. Unless you've evacuated an airliner by triggering the inflatable emergency slide or won Dancing with the Stars it is best not to quit your day job if you want to publish a book. Save your writing for that sacred space and special time when you give yourself permission to be who you were made to be.

4) Don't try to create a project to be "unlike anything before." What you can do best is your tell your story -- or any story -- in the way only you can tell it. Find your voice, take your time, be compelling.

5) Practice falling off a horse and getting back on a few dozen times. If you're still standing, then you're a writer.

Ecco Qua Press is an independent publisher that upholds the tradition of good writing.

5 Ways to Recover from a Flat-Out Fall

1. Take a good look. Smell the carpet. Realize you're down. Accept that it is only when you are flat out that you understand exactly what you're made of and the real view of where you are.

2. Forgive yourself. Gravity fells us all at some time or another. It's life. It's messy.

3. Draw boundaries around your self-reproach and make preliminary movements to rise. Take as much time as you need.

4. Look up. Once you're in an upward rise, the more you reach for, the wider your landscape will become.

5. Step into it. That is, step into whatever landscape is opening before you. It will hold.

5 Reasons Writers Should Read

1) If you are reading then you are not Tweeting or lurking on Facebook.

2) Writers easily become self-referring; that is, we can begin to think of our writing as the standard-bearer of good writing. Reading others' works reminds us that our work not only is not the standard but also that this writer probably has sold more books than we have or ever will.

3) It slows you down because reading good writing often takes time to read. Many times you must penetrate several chapters before the momentum of the book pulls you into it. This develops patience, persistence, and (if you're open to it) an ability to authentically relish the power of simple words rightly placed and the pace of a good story. It will serve well the tenacity it takes to stay with a writing project.

4) You begin to acquire a sense about what makes a book good and what pulls it down. These instincts then arise when you are writing your own narrative.

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5) You begin to hear the writers "narrative voice," which is the backbone of every good book. Hearing another writer's narrative voice enables you to scrutinize your own. Without a clear narrative voice, your book-in-process will sink to the bottom of a lonely sea.

Special Tip: Regularly divide your reading between contemporary writers and classics. Time is the true test of a good book. If a book passes the test of time then it was written by someone whose writing you should emulate, or least, appreciate.

5 Ways Not to Sabotage Your Writing

1) In the process of writing don't read and re-read what you've just written on the page. Simply write. The reading can come later--(see step 5)--assuming you've saved your work on a flash drive in the unlikely but altogether possible event your computer crashes.

2) Save your work on flash drive or back-up system every writing day. 

3) Don't read your work to other people (or give it to them to read) during the early stages. It's none of their business and they probably don't want to hear it anyway. It's your piece -- your voice. Write until you're convinced it is where it needs to be, then hand it over to a trusted reader and brace yourself.

4) Interject an element of hilarity into your mindset. The sun will come up tomorrow, even if you don't get that troublesome sentence just the way you want it. Throw anything out there. You can always reign in your over-the-top sentimentality during the later stages.

5. If you don't feel like writing, read what you've already written. Then, soon, you'll find yourself writing again.