Dazed and Confused: Dealing with the Troll Review

Being a writer can be an amazing and rewarding experience. We write something clever, moving, or terrifying and then sit back to wait for the responses. “Awesome job, man!” or “Oh my goodness, that was soooo scary!” are all things we crave to hear. Only what happens when we get a review where the person hates what we’ve written? And not only do they hate it but they let us know in the meanest way possible?

from www.technobuffalo.com 

Yes, I am talking about the dreaded Troll Review. You know, the one we all secretly fear but will likely encounter at one point in time. There are a lot of articles out there about how to deal with them, and most of the ones I’ve read are quite helpful. In my opinion, though, they often deal with the ‘head’ aspect, the reasoning behind how to make an appropriate response. But what do we do about how we feel? Isn’t the main reason those reviews or comments are so difficult to shrug off because they hurt?

I decided to write this article because I believe that responding properly to a tough review involves both the head and the heart. Even if you choose not to address the reviewer directly, internally some sort of response is required on our part or it is difficult to move past it. I’ve written before about the fact that when we write, the end product is extremely personal to us. Some even consider it their ‘baby’ or a piece of their own soul so of course harsh comments will feel like salt in a wound. So how do we move from the point of feeling crushed to the point of accepting the review for what it is–someone’s opinion of our work–and moving on?

The first time I was Trolled, I felt mortified. Horrified. I sat up in the middle of the proverbial road, looking around in confusion for the train which had just stream-rolled over me. I remember thinking, “Is it possible my book is that bad?” Once I got up and dusted myself off, it took a long time to get my head back on straight. My confidence was cracked; I couldn’t tell how much of what the person had said was valid or a crock. Nor could I understand how someone could so flippantly belittle my work and all the effort I put into it. I knew not everyone would love everything I wrote, but I had expected people to be respectful in how they let me know. I certainly hadn’t expected to be lambasted!

from focusmagazine.org

In truth, I should have seen it coming. On the writing site where the book is uploaded, I had received polite reviews which mentioned some of the problems with it, and even my writing buddy tried to warn me: “You write really well, but the story builds really slowly. Some readers might like that but just know you might lose some (readers) because of it.” “Yeah, uh-huh,” I’d said, “but this is how I want the story to read. This is my vision for it.”

Fatal last words. I came to see that, often, when we hold so tightly to an idea or a concept that we refuse to change it despite evidence we should, we can expect it to come back to haunt us. Though it hurt, I reread that Troll Review a few times. The thing is, I started to see that, despite its obnoxious packaging, the reviewer was actually speaking the truth. Her comments jived with what my writing partner and the other polite reviewers had told me but which I had refused to accept. So, I had a choice to make: continue to bemoan how I was treated and ignore what turned out to be good feedback…or swallow my pride. I chose to drink a big glass of milk to help that bitter pill go down, then I sat down, reconsidered the story…and then wrote the hell out of it. Many times. It was my first book so it needed a lot of work, but I was determined to show myself–and everyone else–that I could do it. In other words, I transformed that negative situation into a positive one which I then used to my advantage.

Still, we have to be careful. Not every Troll Review is useful. But then neither are all the fluff reviews and feedback we can also get. Every piece of feedback has to be scrutinized and broken down so we can see what is useful and what is not. My point is that just because something is said in a rude way doesn’t mean we should ‘throw the baby out with the bathwater.’ Take a deep breath, read it and reread it until you can see past the crap to whatever nuggets of gold might be hidden underneath it. Then wash them off and write the hell out of your story.

Harsh feedback doesn’t get easier to take over time, at least not for me. But the experience has made me grow, enabled me to become more critical of my work and to consider points of views that are different than my own, which in the end actually benefit my work.

How about you? How have you dealt with Troll Review? Do you have any words of wisdom to share with anyone who might be dealing with this issue right now?

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