I wrote some poems,

[Marty McFly]

change the ending, like?

here are some old poems I wrote:

this one's about Battery City (Twin Towers)

Battery City you’re beaten-

you’re battered.

all of your glory

is laying there, tattered.

From Battery Tunnel

to Battery Park,

the whole of your sky-line

was left in the dark.

Your tall buildings of steel

with widows aglow

are now all cleared up

from the shambles below.

People who saw you,

even hearts like a rock,

are now using pacemakers

because of the shock.

batteries for our hearts;

batteries for Battery City.

Battery.

(about the DeLorean from BTTF III)

DeLorean, DeLorean,

I’m delirious with pain;

why did I just let you

get run over by that train?

You broke to many pieces right before my very eyes

forever I’ll remember what beneath this train track lies.

DeLorean, DeLorean, you mean so much to me!

How will I forget the horror that I see?

I am anguished, I’m dolorous,

oh!

DeLorean!

Edited November 28, 2006 by Marty McFly

[AMERICONORMAN]

You could write an new ending but that would be it. You can write a story based on the events that she didn't cover but are implied by the story. You can write a completely new story based on her plot outline. You can't lay claim to what she wrote, for example prior to her ending. In fact, as a writing exercise, it helps to change the ending of short stories, or even novels, and to re-write scenes of whole novels, but what you didn't write is not yours.

Feel free to write an new ending to We The Living but you'll have legal problems if you try to publish it, because if you just publish that ending, and it is good, it won't stand without what Ayn Rand wrote prior to it. Literarily, maybe the ending of her novel disappointed you; well, you would have to change the preceding scenes that are a necessary to make your ending stand.

It would be easy in short stories because so much is missing; many short stories are sketches and can be made longer.

For example, you can do this with Du Maupassant, for example his Necklace. I did it once with his Necklace for a creative writing seminar years ago. And I more recently did one, which I will include below for his story "Am I Insane?".

Am I Insane by Du Maupassant:

http://www.harvestfields.ca/horror/007/085.htm

I think my ending fits well. But I could never publish it unless I give credit to Du Maupassant. So I must give credit to him and say that my ending is just an ending, an exercise, and in no way is a claim to ownership of Du Maupasssant's original story.

---------------------------------------

“… She turned on me and dealt me two terrific blows across the face with her riding whip, which felled me, and as she rushed at me again …” –Guy Du Maupassant

… I shot one bullet into the air and it stopped her rush. I pointed the barrel of my gun, her head the target, as she froze a few feet from me, and I demanded my answer, “Why did you whip me? You know I can shoot you with this gun.”

“Perhaps I do not care to live with out that horse.”

“And if I did not shoot that horse—if lightning struck it first?”

“I would have chosen a better horse? I loved this horse you shot.”

“Precisely; you betrayed me with that horse. I waited a week, a month—but longer than that would be betrayal. A year was generous enough on my part (and that only because I love you) to allow the beast to live. He was executed for his crime. The year was his tribunal. I shot that horse—now I’m ‘horrid’.”

“My time was my prerogative.”

“As it is mine.”

“How dare you claim that?”

“The way of the saddle is not your profession but the way of the pen … as is mine. When was the last time you saddled your pen?”

“Riding did not cure me—but Tarzan was my leisure.”

“And what am I?”

“I know you missed me. But how could I ride you if I could not write?”

“And the achievements of your entire life—are they not always worth celebrating? And mine?”

After a long pause she spoke, “His execution was not your crime but mine. Will you punish me? Can I ride you now?”

“No. We bury the beast now!”

“You want him past me absolutely, first?”

“Then you’ll ride me.”

Three hours later we were covering a giant grave in the roadside. In the afternoon we were engaging in another act of destruction; the destruction of my bed frame with every thrust of my gun.

Tell me am I Insane?

--New ending to De Maupassant’s story

By Jose Gainza.

[Marty McFly]

no, but I didn't mean publish it or anything.... just, you know, like when you write Harry potter Fan Fiction, (ever heard of that?) so could one also write 'We the Living' Fan Fiction, or you can only use contemporary authors?

[DavidOdden]

I am puzzled at the fact that there does seem to be a prohibition against using certain ideas, when the law only protects the expression and not the ideas. Names like "Kira Argunova" can't be copyrighted, nor can the idea of "life in the early Soviet Union". If you wrote a parody of a novel, that would be allowed. It seems to me that this is a case where the law says one thing, but lawyers, judges and jurors can create their own interpretation of the statute. I haven't read a case where a fan-fiction writer is sued, but I would imagine that it starts from the concept "derivative work". The cognitive dissonance is that you are not allowed to freely copy a work (which means, copy, nothing fancy it means taking the words from the original) and that is quite clear, but you can't make a "derivative work" which is ill-defined, being something that transforms a work. Now, 17 USC 102b says "In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea...embodied in such work", so I don't know how the general ideas of WTL could be protected under copyright law.

Anyhow, it doesn't matter whether you publish a work. Supposing that it's against the law to write a sequel to WTL ("Kira awakes, and mutters 'Damn Soviet bullets, not worth the powder to blow them', then wanders off to freedom"). Then it's against the law, period. The law doesn't directly care whether you publish or not. However, copyright infringement is not a crime, which means that you have to actually cause damage by writing the sequel, which I think isn't provable. They / he could get an injunction against you doing anything with it, but you won't be fined for writing and not distributing a private version. Technically you don't have to publish to be in real trouble, but effectively you do -- this is a bad thing about such laws, that they cause confusion over what the actual right is.