If there's anyone on here who uses Paypal regularly, is there anything you think I should know before getting an account? I'm getting it mostly to receive payments, though possibly to buy stuff online as well.

Um. Probably this is TMI and not an instruction anyone sensible should need, but ... don't accidentally drink mold? It's, ah, unpleasant. And bad for you. (I had a bottle of juice, and I thought it tasted a little funny, but it was only after a couple of sips that I thought to actually check the bottom of the bottle).

And question? If, after a very bad evening of throwing up and being hyper and mildly feverish, someone had written a short kinkmeme fill for a movie she hasn't even watched yet, should she own up to it? I mean, I meant to see the movie, but I missed it in the cinemas, so I've mostly been reading recaps and fanfic and bits of the novelisation that people have posted. It's just that the prompt was for an AU, which covers a lot of sins, and I like playing with the anthropomorphic manifestations of principles in a Lovecraftian universe, so I wrote something and posted it anonymously at 2:30 am while trying to pull my guts back in, and now I don't know what to do. I don't like having written a thing without actually having seen the source. But I sort of do like the story, though I don't know if people who've actually seen the movie would.

And, ah. It's possible that I'm still slightly loopy and weird after the night I've had -_-; But. Ought one own up to such things, or simply leave them anonymous?

One thing I've noticed gets commented on a lot in my stories is characterisation. So I was just wondering ... what do people consider good or bad characterisation?

Given how much of characterisation is down to interpretation, in some media more than others, about the only objective measure I can think of is that you need to make sure the plot is character-derived, rather than the characters plot-derived. I mean, you need to make sure that characters are reacting to and causing situation because that's how that character acts/reacts, not because that's the action you need them to take for the sake of the plot. (For example, Thorin from the Hobbit is a proud, possessive, honourable, courageous git, which is why the plot of the book makes sense, because a proud, possessive, honourable, courageous git is exactly the kind of person who will try to take back his family's mountain from a dragon with only thirteen guys to help him, and exactly the kind of guy who will then massively screw things up because the worse aspects of his nature, with a bit of outside help, got the better of him).

Just ... making sure that things are happening because those characters would probably do those things in that situation, rather than because the Plot Demands, and the characters can lump it. Like that? You set up your basic situation and your characters first, and then get the plot. Or, if you really need the plot first, you start by asking "What situation would there have to be to make such-a-character consider this action?". (If you're doing original fiction, rather than fanfic, you can probably go "This is my situation, this is my plot, now what kind of character would make that happen?" I've never managed that, because I find that characters, of all aspects of the story, take on lives of their own really quickly, which makes plots difficult to keep on track for me -_-;).

Every story is basically a combination of Set-Up, Characters and Action/Plot. If any of those has to be set in stone, you need to work the other two to match. In fanfic, Characters tend to more set in stone than the other two, being outside-derived, so they should probably be the shaping force. Most fanfic works on the principle of getting Characters to do Plot, which either means jigging the Set-Up around, or ... well, bad characterisation, usually.

As far as I can tell, then, good characterisation is keeping a clear and solid enough idea of the characters that they can hold their own with the Set-Up and Plot you've given them. Ideally, you do this by deriving the plot from them, but in circumstances where the Plot is as important, you do it by tailoring the Set-Up more carefully around them.

Would that ... generally line up with what other people think on the issue?

*squirms sheepishly* Okay. So. You know how I'm absolutely terrible at longfic? And you know how horrible I am at updating? And you know how I've so many stories already on the boil? And you know how bad I am at keeping multiple fandoms on the go at once?

Um. I've sort of written 2500 words of a first chapter of a Hobbit AU fanfic focused on Bilbo, Ori and Bifur that promises, should I successfully complete it, to be six or seven chapters long. If. So very much if. I have laid out a skeletal structure, 19 parts in 6 chapters/groups, which I managed to successfully stick to while writing the first 3 parts/1 chapter. I mean, theoretically, it's doable.

But. But. Keeping in mind that entire first paragraph. I think ... I think maybe I shouldn't post it? *scrunches* Because I'm bad at longfic. Especially chaptered longfic. And a skeleton historically has been only nominally effective for me. I should probably at least wait a couple chapters. I just ... get nervous when they're sitting there, and tend to try rewrite into uselessness -_-;

Um. What I'm asking is, would people be willing to tolerate a WIP, from someone who is generally very bad at maintaining WIPs, in a fandom other than her main one, involving Bilbo, Ori and Bifur kicking off a mild renaissance revolution in a slightly AU Erebor?

... There is no way to ask this that doesn't sound like fishing. Mostly because it is, in essence, largely just fishing. So. Let us admit that up front, and ask regardless.

I've gotten some comments on my stories, or my writing in general (and I apologise to those who made them, if this is overstepping bounds somewhat). Very wonderful comments, that some of my stories are good for bad days, or for helping people through things, or are just things people enjoy having. Which is ... *flaps hands* Um. A very wonderful thing to feel you have helped with, in however small a way.

I just ... am sometimes slightly confused as to how. *ducks sheepishly* I mean, I don't write fluff/feel-good that often, and I've written some spectacularly dark and violent things, and some just plain weird things, and a whole bunch of stuff just off the top of my head, and ...

Um. Yes. Slightly confused. So.

Um. Why? I think that's what I'm asking. What ... what do you find good about what I do? In general, I mean.

And, ah, I reserve the right to pull this post down at some future point, because it is just fishing, and, um, my conscience and/or my nerves will probably kick in soon. It's just ... a thing I've been wondering for a while, so. *ducks* My apologies.