[Writer Post] A Discussion on Storms and Fandom
Welcome to Writer Wednesday – actually on Wednesday. It’s been an interesting week thus far – both in the cool way and the Chinese Proverb way. The DFW area is within 1.5 inches of breaking a rain record for the Month of May. I’ve been dealing with the Crazy Weather at work and at home. I didn’t get as much writing done last night as I might’ve liked because an unexpectedly severe storm freaked out Loki, our dog, so much that he needed some serious comforting, and he’s a big ole Mama’s Boy, but I got some words in before that happened, because…determined.
I started a discussion on Facebook based on a blog post asking the question if the big, commercial comic book shows are killing fandom. So far, the discussion is civil but esoteric. I’m kinda hoping to get down into the nuts and bolts to see if anyone has any good constructive ideas on how to keep fan run conventions from becoming obsolete – if it’s not too late for that. But at the moment, it’s still has a tone of “Back in MY day…” and it’s a handful of people. I hope more people jump on the discussion.
This is completely a selfish reason. I need the fan-run conventions. I also need the comic book shows (just not the Mega ones) because this is the way I meet and make fans and readers. It’s where I connect with my colleagues. It’s part of my JOB, and I don’t want it going out of business. So I’m open to ideas on how to continue to grow fandom.
It may be that we have to consider going “back” to a “new” paradigm of a Hybrid Convention – like SoonerCon is kinda doing at the moment. Bringing in the writers, the artists, and a small handful of actors for those who are into the media thing to see there’s more to fandom. A lot more. Maybe it means appealing more to younger readers by encouraging Young Adult readers and writers – maybe starting with a day workshop or something that then leads to a “typical” fan-run convention. Whatever those maybes are (and please, please offer your opinions so I can pass them on to convention runners I know) we need to embrace them.
There can’t be any “Get Off My Lawn” moments in fandom – not if fandom is going to survive. I’ve been guilty of it. I was wrong, very, very wrong. Just because I don’t understand what you’re into doesn’t mean it’s not worth being into. I’ve turned my nose up to Twilight, I admit it, until I realized people were reading, now I suggest Rachel Caine to anyone I meet who’s all about the Twilight. And I want fandom to survive. I didn’t discover fandom until I was an adult. My younger years would’ve been … I hope… less difficult if I’d realized there were more people like me out there. Let’s continue the tradition.