"Bowling" SW Edition

[scidram]

But it is copyrighted. Once you write a story, you immediately own the copyright to it. The author may not have registered the copyright, but they own it.

And not making money from it doesn't matter.

Now, it's one thing to do this for your own purposes and keep it to yourself. If someone had done this to my work without my permission or knowledge, I'd be upset.

[TheReducer]

Doesn't matter if YOU are making money on it or not, you should ask the original author permission to edit their story like that.
I've had ideas from other people or other people's work and I've always asked them before even starting telling them I want to play in their yard they created. Two of them were A Doll's Life (which I rewrote to be a little less risque after asking Rodan if I can) and Another Prize (a spinoff from Dreamtales' The Prize - again with his permission).

[qzar9999]

Not making money from stolen intellectual property is a good way to greatly lower your odds of getting sued. But just because you don't get punished doesn't mean you did nothing wrong.

[Anotherfetishguy]

Originally Posted by qzar9999

Not making money from stolen intellectual property is a good way to greatly lower your odds of getting sued. But just because you don't get punished doesn't mean you did nothing wrong.

Alright I won't make these anymore!

[Janus Steel]

Originally Posted by Anotherfetishguy

Alright I won't make these anymore!

I don't think any of us are saying you can't make them, we're just saying that if you want to get better that best way is to practice at your chosen artistic expression.

I want to get better at drawing, but I don't practice so I can't get better.

I want to play music, but I don't learn how to play (insert musical instrument here).

The steps to getting better is taking an activity like this and then going to the next step to make your next project. You've started on the route to being a creative individual in a particular field... now you just need to start outlining.

Start small, do a story exchange with someone. Take turns writing by writing a few pages then a partner writes a few pages. Make an outline or script of what you want to do. Start thinking/writing down the ideas for characters and how they'll interact with the world.

I have folks in real life tell me that they have this grand story in their head and they want to write but they just can't. Universally they cannot give a reason for why they don't write, they have just in their mind decided they can't and shaking that thought is very hard for some people.

You're showing us you can write, editing to maintain a cohesive story is important. You've shown you can do that by altering the story to fit your narrative, it's what I do with Photomanipulations, so you can do it. Now you just need to start working towards creating your own unique work.

OR

TL: DR I'm trying to help you by encouraging you to write your own material.