> Others have mentioned writing angry letters and then throwing them away as a means of working through problems. That would help me verbalize my problem, but afterward I would only be all the more frustrated. By putting logical terms and a rational voice to something that bothers me, it would absolutely KILL me to know that whoever I'm angry at or hurt by or whatever would never really understand why I was angry or hurt. So if I feel the need to write something in the first place, I also feel the need to have it get read. Now, having just ANYBODY read it still would not be enough for me -- it would have to be the one I'm writing "to" -- but everybody's different.

[I snipped a bit, and I think I'm changing the topic a little.]

If I get upset about something, I feel much better after I have "written it out," to quote Lucy Maud Montgomery (author of 26+ books, including 'Anne of Green Gables'). Sometimes that's enough for me, and I calm down. There have been many times where I never told the subject of my anger that I was mad or upset. Of course, this can lead to problems in itself, because if you keep everything inside, you eventually explode. (Case in point: me.)

However, as Sam said, there are other times when writing is not enough. In these cases, I usually write out my frustrations in the form of a letter to the person who upset me. I have found that, when I really do have cause to be upset, my letters result in actions. I've had various responses, such as when I was in seventh grade and the entire eighth grade class was kept inside at lunch until they returned the pens and pencils they had stolen from me. I know it sounds trivial now, but it was a big deal to me back then.

Then there was the time when I got my cheap, stingy boss to give me a raise of $1 an hour, which was simply NOT heard of where I worked. I wrote him a long letter about how much work I did, and told him what I thought. I wondered if I would get fired, but instead, I got the raise. And then there was the time when I, at the age of 12, wrote a letter about a rude policeman. He actually came to my house and grudgingly admitted that maybe he had been a bit harsh, but I never saw him again. I saw all of the local policemen on a regular basis because I lived in a small community and rode my bike a lot, so he either got transferred somewhere else, or something worse happened to him.

I think I have completely deviated from the original subject now, but I guess my point is that "Rant Files," or whatever you happen to call them, can serve a very good purpose. Sometimes they are just a release for emotions, but sometimes they are written documents to be acted upon. The trick then is to know when and how to act.

Ell"Maybe this is classified as a rant"myruh