In the Chapter 2 of the Book of Controversy we talked about growing a thick skin, because there’s every chance things are going to get nasty. There are a lot of really angry, irrational people out there, and most of them also have bad spelling skills just to top it off. But those are your very own haters, the key to creating and drawing out your controversy. Without the haters, you don’t have controversy – you just have that thing you wrote/recorded. You need them. They are oxygen to you now.
This is Chapter 3 – not backing down. In order to get the most out of what you’ve created, you’re going to want to talk directly to those haters. Because wherever you put your controversy on the ‘Net (which is the only place I recommend you put it, for now), the more engagement the better. Facebook comments, blog comments, YouTube comments, likes, retweets, +1’s – you want as many as you can, because the nature of the beast is that more will attract more and give your stuff longevity.
Engaging with these people can be fun, or it can be torture, depending on how you approach it and which kind of psycho you’ve attracted. The number one thing you need to remember when you do this is you have to stick to your guns. No compromise, no backsies. Whatever your original stance was, you can never, ever stray from it. Even if someone presents the best argument in all of human history, it can not affect you.
If you start being wishy washy and changing your mind, you’ve lost your edge. Now it’s a discussion, not a statement and the controversy has subsided. So pick your stance carefully, because it’s going to become a fundamental part of you.