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The Secret to Why Dennis Miller Can Rant in Public and the Rest of Us Really Can’t

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Rant Is a Four-Letter Word

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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?

[Read more…]

Rehearsing My Writing . . . No, It’s Not Just a Liz Thing

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Musicians, Actors, Writers

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Growing up, I learned early that it was imporant to sort the things I do that everyone does from the things you might call . . . um, er . . . “uniquely Liz stuff.”

Knowing the difference has saved me from looking foolish and made me a better teacher. . . . Unfortunately, knowing doesn’t come with immediate credibility on that self-same subject.

Sometimes I know that other folks do the same things that I do. Yet the idea is apparently so incredible that people hearing me say so assume I’m delusional and that the subject in question is . . . sshhhh don’t tell Liz, but we all know it’s . . . a “uniquely Liz thing.”

I’m writing this because I know I’m not the only writer who rehearses before writing.

Stop whispering.

I can’t imagine a person who hasn’t used the process, you included.

We all practice what we want to say when the conversation is really important.

“Mom, I don’t want to go to the party. . . . I need to. My entire life depends on it.”

“Sweetheart, when you talk that way, I can’t hear what you’re saying.”

“In the past year, I’ve take on significant new responsibilities . . .”

Those aren’t words that just happened. We rehearsed them.

Actors rehearse improvisations.

Musicians rehearse jams and free-wheelin’ rock solos.

Writers rehearse before writing. Some prewrite. Some freewrite. That’s rehearsing too, but I mean thinking words before sitting down, typing, before having to look at them.

Here’s something of how my rehearsing goes.

  • I think about the words I might write.
  • I say them and listen. I construct and recontruct sentence as if I were preparing for an important conversation.
  • I think I might say this. I think about whether that statement makes sense and makes me want to pursue it.
  • A few words come that sound right.
  • I find a word I particularly like. That word begets another and there are two, three , and four.
  • Soon I have sentence, sentences — whew an idea is rolling — it’s a paragraph!
  • I walk and practice and play with words until I feel ready to write jazzed about what I want to say.

Rehearsing is more fun than sitting at my computer.

I hear some folks rehearse in the shower, . . . That’s okay for writers. It’s not a good idea, if you play electric guitar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you think Liz can help with a problem you’re having with your writing, check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.