Shift of Power

In my last couple of posts, I've been talking about fame and power. Obviously, it's been on my mind lately. What started it all was the idea of the shift of power. When you are just beginning in your field, everybody has more experience, more knowledge, and more power. If you want to get anywhere, you have to do what these people tell you.

But as you do these things and work hard and create good stuff, it tends to be you that gets famous, which means it is you that has the power. One day, you will find that instead of listening to other people, other people are listening to you. When you tell them to do things, they will do them.

I think it is important to remember the Golden Rule in times like these. Ryan Sohmer, who writes the comic Least I Could Do and Looking For Group. was kicked out of the massive comic convention DragonCon. When this happened, he then wrote a lengthy post about it on both comics' websites. This has resulted in a numbers of enraged fans who are now specifically not going to DragonCon, as well as telling others not to go. Had the DragonCon people acted with respect and fairness, none of this would have happened. If I were to guess, I would say that they didn't realize that Sohmer had the power he does. Granted, DragonCon is bigger than Sohmer, so this is hardly going to destroy the convention, but it is going to make for bad publicity. And if similar things keep happening, more bad news will spread and it could cause more significant damage.

To the writers, I think it is important to realize that power does shift. It will not be instant, nor will you go from being a peon to a king, but you will find yourself having more sway as you have more people listening to and caring about you. Just remember that it goes both ways. If you want people to follow you, give them something worth following. For writers, that means give good writing.