Fanfiction

For the past several days over on Lee Goldberg's blog, there's been a fascinating -- and exhausting -- discussion going on about fanfiction. Now, I'll admit that I've never given much thought to fanfiction. On two occasions in my past, however, I've written things that would now fit the definition of fanfic. In 1966, when I was in junior high, I wrote a Tarzan "novel". Since it was written in longhand, I'm not sure how long it really was, probably closer to a 20,000 to 25,000 word novella. I was a Tarzan fan, and I was also a huge fan of the secret agent craze that was going on then, so I combined the two and had Tarzan help out some espionage agents who were on a secret mission in Africa. Then, a few years later, I wrote about a hundred pages of a Lone Ranger novel. I was watching Lone Ranger reruns on TV every day, no surprise. That one used the creaky old plot of having the Ranger get grazed on the head by a bullet, and when he woke up he didn't remember who he was. Meanwhile, some bad guy pretends to be the Lone Ranger. Yes, it was terrible, but if I remember correctly, the writing wasn't too bad. Neither of these stories will ever see the light of day again, because I have no idea where the manuscripts are. Even if I did, it's highly unlikely I'd ever post them on the Internet or anything like that. I mean, the Lone Ranger story wasn't even finished! I had a great time writing them, but I was a kid and easily entertained. No one has ever read them but me, and that's probably as it should be.