I’ve had one or two opportunities to be on a panel at conventions, and I’ve turned them down. \u00a0After my post yesterday, where I talked at length about what I’d like to see on a world building panel, this might seem to be a contradiction.<\/p>\n
I’m intelligent, and I think I compose myself fairly well. \u00a0I enjoy talking and sharing what I’ve learned. \u00a0On some subjects, I have quite a bit to contribute to a panel.<\/p>\n
The problem is that I haven’t earned it yet.<\/p>\n
For those of you that don’t attend conventions or panels, this probably doesn’t mean much to you. \u00a0You might even be wondering why I’ve now dedicated two posts in a row to this thing. \u00a0Let me break it down a little bit, because underneath it all is something that everyone can relate to.<\/p>\n
When I went to Renovention, my first WorldCon, it woke something in me that I thought had died. \u00a0It was my dream of being a successful writer. \u00a0I was overwhelmed by a feeling of belonging. \u00a0I connected with a community filled with people that I could relate to, that understood me. \u00a0It was an experience that inspired me and changed my life.<\/p>\n
Since then, I’ve attended two other conventions, and several smaller ones. \u00a0I’ve started taking my wife with me to them, and she’s seen me in my element. \u00a0And at all of them, I’ve attended panels, taking notes and trying to learn all that I can.<\/p>\n
The people that get to be on these panels are, at least for a moment, set apart from the rest. \u00a0They’re given a name. \u00a0They’re given a responsibility to share what they’ve learned. \u00a0They’re given the spotlight, and a chance for people to listen to them.<\/p>\n
I want to share what I’ve learned. \u00a0I want people to listen.<\/p>\n
But who am I? \u00a0I’m smart, and I’ve got some talent, but that’s most of us. \u00a0Why should my name be on a card, and why should anyone listen to what I have to say?<\/p>\n
The truth is, I’m blowing this up into a much bigger deal than it is. \u00a0Most of the panels I’ve attended, I’d never heard of the people on the panel. \u00a0They’re just folks like you or me. \u00a0Maybe they’ve had a little bit more success in the industry, but not always.<\/p>\n
And of course, I’ve attended some panels where some of the people\u00a0didn’t seem like they should have been panelists in the first place.<\/p>\n
I don’t want to be one of those people.<\/p>\n
I want to earn my name on a folded bit of cardboard. \u00a0If I’m ever on a panel, and someone were to ask, “Who are you?” I want to be able to answer, “I’m Brian C. E. Buhl. \u00a0I wrote\u00a0The Repossessed Ghost<\/em>.” It doesn’t matter if they’ve read it or not. \u00a0It only matters that I wrote it, and put it out there.<\/p>\n It is another stick to throw on my motivational fire. Until I’ve put\u00a0something<\/em> out there, I’m not going to be on any panels. \u00a0No matter how much I might want to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ve had one or two opportunities to be on a panel at conventions, and I’ve turned them down. \u00a0After my post yesterday, where I talked at length about what I’d like to see on a world building panel, this might seem to be a contradiction. I’m intelligent, and I think I compose myself fairly well. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=429"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":430,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429\/revisions\/430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}