Why I’m Happy That I Got My First Troll

Bring it on trolls.

Trolls, a little bit like dealing with your newborn babies' diapers, are an inevitable but yucky part of the life we have chosen. Opening up your computer to read words spitting with hate, directed at you and your carefully edited writing is not normally something you would welcome.

However, I found to my surprise that I didn't recoil at the first pooey diaper that a troll chucked at me.

I felt excited.

I felt powerful.

I figured out it was for these valid reasons:

Trolls mean that someone is actually reading your work.

We’ve all been there, spent too long deep editing a difficult piece only to finally publish it, and literally, 10 people read it. Even worse, none of those 10 like it, or as Medium likes to call it are ‘fans’. It sucks.

Trolls=readers. Readers are good.

Trolls mean that what you are writing is good.

How can someone saying your writing is s**t mean the opposite? I don't want to excavate the dark motivations of trolls here but in order to want to spend time writing shitty comments on someone else’s writing your life is not a bed of roses.

It's not necessary to feel sympathy for these creatures but trolls must come from a pretty miserable place to want to spend their precious free time tearing other people to shreds. The only reason that anyone would bother trying to tear you to pieces is if it's worth it.

What trolls want is to stop you writing.

They see that what you are writing is good, perhaps they wish they had the balls to write like you too, after all, they are on Medium, and most people come here to write or learn about writing. But they are just tiny little trolls who haven't yet worked up the courage to write or despise themselves so much that they can’t even imagine they could write like you.

Anyway, they totally wouldn't bother writing a negative comment on your piece of writing if it wasn't good. So congratulations, if you have a troll, you really should thank them, because they are indirectly telling you, that you're s**t hot.

Trolls in this sense are a little bit like the boy who pulls a girl's hair because he secretly fancies her. They actually probably are that boy just 30 years on.

Trolls mean that your writing is having an impact.

“impact

noun

1. come into forcible contact with another object.

2. have a strong effect on someone or something.”

— Oxford Dictionary

We all like it when people read and like our work.

However, creating an impact with your work confirms that what you are writing is truly unique. Of course, an impact is going to generate positive and negative responses from readers. Most of the time, those who don’t agree, will reply politely stating their reasons or just not clap.

If your writing has trolls it’s probably because what you have said is challenging accepted opinions or ways of doing things. Your article has probably shown the troll a different perspective or highlighted an aspect of their character that they are not ready to see yet.

You have basically stirred something deep inside that troll and they have lashed out.

Trolls give you the power.

In addition to destroying your confidence to write s**t hot pieces, the troll is also looking for the internet version of tears: a quickly written pent-up response.

And of course, I constructed many of these clever comebacks in my head.

But then I stopped.

I read what this guy had written again.

It was poorly written, had a ton of grammar mistakes, and was full of exaggerated over-the-top statements.

Was anything I said to this guy going to make a difference?

Nope.

So why was I going to respond? To put in my two pence, to have my say.

This would only pour gasoline on the fire.

I would get worked up from writing my self-righteous response that put the troll back in his wee box. Then he would jump out of his box again with some other preposterous outlandish statement. Would I then have to respond again?

I might be right, but do I need to show him that I’m right?

If I respond, I’m showing this troll that what he has written had an impact on me. He doesn’t have the balls to write his own work, but he still wants to have a slice of the ‘how it feels to make an impact’ pie.

If I don't reply, hopefully, he will realize sooner or later that trolling doesn't create an impact. And maybe then he will stop.

I was reminded of Mary DeVries’ daughter’s advice: don’t feed the trolls.

Letting my troll die from malnutrition has allowed me to be happier and feel more powerful. I’m not flooding my body with rage and negative emotions like he is as he sits hunched over his laptop at 2 a.m. desperately seeking someone to unleash his fury on.

Good luck with the trolls in your life. Let me know exactly what you think in the comments, particularly if you are a troll.

Doran Lamb is a freelance writer on addiction and mental health. She writes to challenge the stigma that exists as a result of mental health and through her writing wants the world to know that individual difference makes the world dynamic, sexy and beautiful. She is proudly an addict in recovery, a mother, and an opinionated woman, who has learned not to give a f**k what anyone thinks.