Image Credits: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. One image directly from Pixabay.
Does the title of this post sound like a strange combination? It’s not as odd as you might think. I thought this would be a good topic given we have just had St. Valentine’s Day. That saint’s day alone triggers obvious writing themes – love and sacrifice, the latter especially so if you write a non-fiction account of St. Valentine’s life.
The positive thing with this is there are lots of love stories out there but there are also loads more to be written! Why? Because love is something which affects us all, always will affect us all, and there are many varieties of love so there are many types of story you can tell here. There will always be story competitions available to try which are based on this theme and they don’t all come up around 14th February, honestly!
Top Tip
It is a good tip when you are writing to a classic theme like this to write down different possibilities which could emerge from it. The more ideas you can write down the better.
The first few will be the ones everyone thinks of but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Just think about what it is you could bring to the mix to make your story stand out. Equally the ones further down your list are less likely to occur to everyone and that may help your story stand out for a competition judge.
For example:-
Love Themes
Romantic love
Bear in mind crime stories can come from this too. Many a story has been told about a character removing an obstacle, usually a spouse or partner, in their way to their obtaining true happiness (or what they think will be). Agatha Christie springs to mind here – 4.50 From Paddington is just one. Her Nemesis, which I think is an outstanding novel, deals with obsessive love. Highly recommend that if you’ve not read it.
Love at an older age
Love leading to sacrifice
Think Casablanca, Brief Encounter – doubtless you’ll think of lots of other examples. I would include The Lord of the Rings here too. Sam Gamgee doesn’t know he’ll ever get back to the love of his life, Rosie, when joining Frodo on his quest but he still joins his fellow hobbit. Plus there is his sacrificial love to help Frodo, Sam faces many dangers. He could’ve stayed at home!
Love for something special and that can include pets etc
What would your characters do to defend this something special? What problems would that cause them?
Unexpected love
Comes as a bolt from the blue for your two lead characters. Do they react positively to this? Not everyone would.
Love for concepts such as justice
If your character has a love for justice, what would they be prepared to do to show that love for justice in action? There would be consequences too.
The Main Four Saints of the British Isles and Ireland
Now there are a number of saints, especially if you combine those commemorated by the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England. I thought though I would also look at what writing could come from the best known of the saints for the British Isles and Ireland – St. Patrick, St. David, St George, and St. Andrew.
Think Legends and Emblems
All of the four main saints have legends attached to them. St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland. St George fought dragons. St. Andrew was one of Jesus’s disciples. As for St David there is a legend stating the ground beneath his feet rose up to form a hill so people at the back of a crowd could hear him speak. A white dove, sent by God, settled on his shoulder. Also all four have flowers attached to them.
St Patrick – Shamrock
St David – Daffodil
St George – Red Rose
St Andrew – Thistle
So how can we use this in our writing?
Non-Fiction
Naturally you can write pieces about the four saints and/or the flowers associated with them. Given all four are Christian, you could write non-fiction pieces on what you think their faith meant to them. You could also write generally about why saints days are held and what people used to do on these days.
In the case of St. George, you could look at why several countries have him as their saint. He isn’t just for England. I’ve included links above to assist in finding out more about the saints (to get you started). I often find when checking out links like these, something I read triggers a writing idea. I hope that happens for you!
Also you could write about the process of being made a saint and why certain people are chosen.
From a gardening point of view, you could write pieces about the flowers associated with the saints, how to grow them etc (though in the case of the thistle, it may be a question of knowing how to remove them and stop them spreading. Personally I like thistles. The flowers are beautiful but I accept you wouldn’t want to hold any! You wouldn’t be that popular if you offered someone a bunch of them either).
Fiction
The obvious route to take here would be to retell the saints’ lives as stories. For example, with St. Patrick, how did he drive the snakes out? What led him to realise this needed to be done? Could you show what the saints might be thinking as they got on with the stories which became their legends?
If you’re inventing your own world, and need the equivalent of saints’ days/holidays, think about who and what your setting might commemorate and why. There are reasons why any country decides a certain personage will be their patron saint so you could use something like this to decide your World X has this Saint/Past Hero Y and what their stories might be.
Going back to our saints, what are the stories behind the flowers associated with them? For example, the red rose of St. George is linked to his killing of the dragon. The dragon’s blood fell to the ground and from that red rose bushes grew. What legends could you invent for your own characters?
Flowers are also used as symbols. You could use those symbols (red roses = love or, conversely, the House of Lancaster in the Wars of the Roses) to come up with stories (again a love story or in the case of the latter invent a character who fought for the House of Lancaster. How did they fare?).
Objects in Stories
This is a favourite writing prompt and I have often used it. You could use the flowers themselves listed above and put one or some or all of them into a story.
Flowers themselves are symbolic (red roses for love, back to that word again!) so how could you use that symbolism for your characters? What meanings would the flowers convey to other characters? There is such a thing as the language of flowers which was especially popular in Victorian times – do check out the link for more.
Motivation
Motivation is a powerful driver behind all fiction. The saints were driven by their faith. There is nothing to stop you creating a character of your own who is driven by their faith. What would they do? Would it be welcomed? The four saints here did try to do good. What would your character do to help others?
I suspect the saints themselves would not have seen themselves as that. That accolade came long after they left this life. But for your own characters, would they be recognized as saints in their life times? If so who would do so and what would this be for? There are stories there.
Conclusion
I hope the above shows saints’ days can lead to interesting writing themes. I’ve found before that odd topics can encourage lateral thinking (which is a fabulous way of helping you to develop strong ideas and characters to write about).
But it does pay for any theme to write down different possibilities springing from it. It makes you think more deeply and that’s when your imagination can really get to work for fiction.
For non-fiction use what you need to find out initially to dig more deeply into your topic, whether it is about a saint or something else, and show your readers something interesting they may not have come across before.
Digging deeply does help you write better and I am all for that.
Related Posts:-
Read interviews with Chandler’s Ford writer Allison Symes: Part 1 and Part 2.
Read blog posts by Allison Symes published on Chandler’s Ford Today.
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