Rant Is a Four-Letter Word
Something has happened. It wasn’t nice. It happened once too often. It happened to someone you care about. It needs to be addressed. You’re about to write something someone is going to read.
Before you write, check your emotions. They’re running high, aren’t they? Here’s what you need to do before you write.
Go to the local store. Buy 100 ballooons. Blow them up and pop them each one individually — one at a time — slowly savoring the noise. Or do something else that will open a steam valve: go running,
Whatever you do, please don’t write and rant. Rant is a four-letter word. You’ve read ’em. They’re deadly.
So, how come Dennis Miller can rant in public?
The Secret to Why Dennis Miller Can Rant in Public
Dennis Miller is known for his rants in public. No one can beat his ranting style. How is it that he can make a rant fun and funny? Get past Dennis, and I’ve never met a rant that couldn’t bore me or make me want to run away.
Just what is Dennis’ secret? Let’s take a look at what Dennis really does.
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1. Dennis uses big vocabulary. Big vocabularly is fun, but there’s another thing that it brings. People usually don’t have feelings attached to less frequently used words. Call someone loud, vocal, noisy, and people might hear feelings. Say raucous, strident, vociferous, and people just hear words. Dennis doesn’t seem to be saying things meant to hurt.
2. Dennis seems to have no personal relationship to the places or people he talks about. He gives opinion and commentary, supported by facts and research. Watch a Dennis rant for an emotional listing of faults — you won’t find one.
3. Dennis knows that his purpose for being there is to inform and entertain. Every word, every look is polished and geared toward that. Dennis cares about his audience, not about getting things off his chest.
You know what that adds up to, don’t you?
The secret to why Dennis Miller can rant in public is that
Dennis Miller doesn’t rant — he only calls what he does a rant.
I thought it was time the secret was out.
Don’t write and rant — until you rant as well as Dennis Miller does.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
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Ah, the secret is out: he has Roget on his shelf and refers to it frequently 😉
I think the real difference here, though, is that many people start blogs just so they can express their opinions on varous topics. Dennis is a professional and has a different approach.
It’s hard for the average blogger to distance themselves from their feelings, when that is the motive for blogging in the first place.
In some ways, it’s similar to the “friend and the entrepreneur who doesn’t set up the meeting”. Stay calm 😉
Scorpia,
My face lit up to see that you commented on this post. I couldn’t wait to see what you said. I wasn’t disappointed . . . 🙂
Love your first sentence.
Ah yes, feelings. Writing is about expression and expression involves feelings. Blogs are perfect for that. However, I think that writing a “rant,” especially those that outright announce it, is a bit like writing drunk. Folks say things that only interest themselves and — ouch — even worse, sometimes say things that they’re sorry they put down in public later. It’s too often not pretty.
Liz – great post. Many people write with passion, but sometimes they forget to ground themselves in facts. If I’m going to write passionately about a topic, i try to ensure I have my facts straight. I’ve scrapped many a post because it was, just as you say, a rant. Thanks for posting a real thought-provoker.
Hi Timothy,
Passion is great and venting is good too. We just have to know that venting is not always interesting to anyone but us.
I scrapped quite few or rewritten them. Yesterday’s post started out as venting and ended up as advice. . . . now there’s a happy blogging ending. 🙂
Hi Liz. As usual, a great post.
This isn’t really a rant, but sometimes when things dance through my head, they find their way to my keyboard:
I’d like to know how it is that you, Liz Strauss, wordsmith extraordinairre, are able to find the time to sculpt your craft so wisely each day and still have the time to tutor, mentor and sagaciously monotor all of your business endeavors in, what is to the grand scheme of time, a mere speck of 24 hours.
Well, there’s another Dennis who can rant in public – though he stole most of his act from Lenny Bruce, Dennis Leary does a mean rant too…
Though stand-up ranting is also …different from what people normally think of as rants.
Hi Carolyn,
I don’t so well sometimes, believe me. One at my desk would tell you that’s so.
I do edit to take whatever venting I can find, but I’ve always succeeded there either. Email me and I’ll point you to a beauty of an example where I thought I was just saying what I did, but apparently I was pretty critical. Uh-oh. And I’m supposed the nice one.
I don’t sleep or eat much or very often . 🙂
Yeah, you’re right, AdLib. He does a mean stand up. I would call them rants. But their not aimed at people usually.
Wasn’t it you who wrote in, um, I think it was your “Successful Series” that you like to step outside and look at nature to get a new perspective? Yeah, I’d like to see that critical piece of yours, but not to be critical.
Oh, how funny – writing drunk! I love that analogy Liz! Do you suppose those who rant – aka, write drunk – wake up regretting what they’ve done?
Liz, always glad to cheer you up 😉
Rants are always about something that annoy, or maybe anger, people greatly. So it’s hard to control that in many cases. And yes, those words can come back to haunt you for a long, long time.
Really the best way to handle this is to write the piece and sit on it for a couple of days. Then take another look at it. My guess is, a lot of bloggers won’t put it up, at least not in the original form.
The great danger of the online world is that it’s immediate. And emotions like immediate release.
By the way, I’ll try to be here for open mic tonight, but thunderstorms are predicted for afternoon/evening (and it seems to be getting darker out there even now), so I may not make it.
Hi Carolyn,
Sorry I was gone. I had meeting. Email me and I’ll point you to the post that I’m talking about and tell you the story of who thought it was critical.
Yeah that was me who said to look at nature. Problem was I didn’t know I was in a being critical when I was writing it. It happens to the best of us. I was wrong and I know it. 🙁
Hi Kirsten,
I’m sure there are folks who’ve blogged stuff and then deleted it. 🙂
Hi Scorpia,
Yeah, you’re right it’s the immediacy that’s the temptation of ranting. If we set things aside, we’re off. If we think to do that. . . . sometimes we don’t — even the best of us.
I wrote a business letter once to a friend of the president of the company I worked for. The man had messed up a project in a major way and everyone, even the president knew that. A letter explaining the problem was in order . . . the president asked me to write it and show it him before I sent it. His words after the first version were, “It’s excellent so far. Please take out the venting, and let me read it again.” 🙂
That’s when I learned about venting to start with. 🙂
Excellent post, Liz. A late comment, but oh well.
Lots of great points. I’m going to have to keep an eye on my blog to make sure I don’t fall into that trap.
Keep up the great work.
Back to the archives for me…
Hi Ace,
No such thing as late. I write. You read. Thank you.
I’m delighted that you think my blog is worth mining, and I so enjoy see where that leads. 🙂