Read Up on Scott Noble, Next Week's Guest

Next week our class guest editor (by Skype) will be Scott Noble, freelance writer, editor, and editor of the Minnesota Christian Examiner newspaper. Here is a recent blogpost from Scott, to give you a flavor of his writing. You can read more of his blog at http://beyondtheborderland.blogspot.com/. In the February 6 class period I will give you a copy of Scott's periodical so you can be prepared for his presentation and Q&A session on February 15.

Writing and emotional upheaval

I had one of those days recently. A day when hope was quickly snuffed out by disappointment. A really neat book project got the green light but soon after I received word that an article I wrote--something I had invested a lot of emotional energy in--was rejected by a magazine.

After doing this thing called writing for so many years, you would think I would be used to these days. And to some extent I am. Writers trudge to their writing desks or laptops each day, hoping maybe this is the day (or week or month) when the news will only be good, when the acceptances will far outweigh the rejections.

That's never the case, however. And maybe it shouldn't be.

At times it seems as if our highs can only rightly be defined by--or informed by--the lows that we have experienced. If we only experienced one or the other, they both would eventually become meaningless. That certainly doesn't make it easier when rejections--be they articles, books or relationships--far outweigh the opposite. Yet how many of us can point to times in our lives when the "lows" played a huge role in who we are today?

That's what I've been wrestling with these last few weeks--how pain, disappointment and loss inform and shape us. I'm still working through this but am realizing the powerful impact they have on our lives.