Don't Let the Trolls Get to You

🧶 Tags:: #literature_Notes
🗃 Resources:: Show Your Work! (2014)
2024-08-24 - 20:42

Trolls can come out of nowhere and pop up in unexpected places. Right after my son was born, this woman (presumably a follower, if not a fan) got on Twitter and sent me half a dozen tweets about how she just knew my book Steal Like an Artist was written by somebody without kids, and just you wait, mister.

She then proceeded to quote passages from the book, followed by little ejaculations like, “Ha! Try that when you’re up at three a.m. with a crying baby!”

Now, I have been on the Internet a long time. I get a lot of emails from people who are, as far as I can tell, sad, awful, or completely insane. I have a pretty good mental firewall that filters what I let get to me.

This woman got to me.

Because, of course, the worst troll is the one that lives in your head. it's the voice that tells you you're not good enough, that you suck, and that you'll never amount to anything. it's the voice that told me I'd never write another good word after becoming a father. It is one thing to have the troll in your brain, it is another thing to have a stranger hold a megaphone up to it and let it shout.