Being a beginning fic writer myself, I'm wondering how much adult behavior constitutes a restricted rating?  Is there a standard scale by which we can judge our fic?  I don't tend toward the explicit, though skin and hands do get mentioned, and I fade to black before it gets too squicky.  LOL.  I've only posted on LJ, and nothing like fff.net–I can't say I'm that hard core a fic writer.   Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks!

akajb said:

Here’s the ratings according to ff.net: (I’ve slightly modified it, but it’s pretty much a copyof their guidelines).

1. Fiction Rated: K
Intended for general audience 5 years and older. Content should be free of any coarse language, violence, and adult themes.

2. Fiction Rated: K+
Suitable for more mature childen, 9 years and older, with minor action violence without serious injury. May contain mild coarse language. Should not contain any adult themes.

3. Fiction Rated: T
Suitable for teens, 13 years and older, with some violence, minor coarse language, and minor suggestive adult themes.

4. Fiction Rated: M
Not suitable for children or teens below the age of 16 with possible strong but non-explicit adult themes, references to violence, and strong coarse language.

5. Fiction Rated: MA
Content is only suitable for mature adults. May contain explicit language and adult themes.

Thank you!  Awesome list and I will be using it.  Thanks!

Rats.  I'm still waiting for my clearance to read the Restricted thread. 

Hand cuffs, boxers and a warehouse?  What, was Castle rolled and then stripped to his skivvies by the guys who stole his wallet?  And cuffed to a support beam so they could make their getaway?  Yeah!  that's it.  He's snooping in the warehouse without backup because he's convinced he'll get the drop on the next clue ahead of Beckett….and runs afoul of some squatters or punks in the warehouse. 

And one of the punks jeeringly drops Castle's fancy-dancy smart phone in front of him, just out of reach, to tantalize him with his inability to make a call to the cops.  Of course, little do they know that Castle once dated a circus  contortionist who did a run on Broadway with the Circe du Soleil and she taught him a few tricks in stretching his….well, you get the idea.  So Castle manages to hook his phone with his stockinged toe and by agonizing inches drags it to him.  Only, how the hell is he gonna dial it?  He toes off his socks–that's the last time he'll buy fancy italian, damn those suckers cling like the dickens–and fumbles his phone open with his toes.  He dials the IM addy of Beckett, knowing she'd have her nose glued to her computer doing the paperwork on the case.

Oops!  The phone's web cam is beaming him back to Beckett, giving her a nice look right up one of the boxers legs to–um, well, he shifts in time. 

"Don't worry," he says. "I'll be happy to do a command reinactment of Basic Instinct later.  Just come and pick me up, please? Oh, and…um…bring clothes?"

"Anything else, Castle?"

"A glass of warm milk and a blankie? I'm feeling really insecure right now—"

Beckett hangs up and gets Ryan and Esposito to ride along.  And a few minutes later, Beckett is just standing in the warehouse looking at Castle.  And kinda enjoying it, in a 'gotcha' sort of way.

"Funny," she snarks.  "I'd always pegged you for briefs."

"Why?  Because it molds to my manly physique better?"

She rolls her eyes and throws a blanket over him.  It hits him in the face and falls into his lap.

"Here's your blankie, Castle.  You're on your own if you want milk with that." 

Oh, well, that's what popped into my head when I read your description.  I really haven't a clue as to what that story will be like.  If I don't get my clearance from the moderator, I may never know. 

Castle said:

taimdala you should be able to access the restricted thread, I added you a few hours ago, sorry I should have replied to let you know " /> you should see the extra forum listed now though, if you can't, let me know.

OOh, thank you!  ^_^  Going to go look.  Thanks again.

SydneyDeb said:

LOL not quite but that is brilliant! Very funny and yep so Castle He just can’t help being a smart arse.

Lolz!  Yes, that's what keeps me coming back to the show–the humor.  Of course, the character drama is satisfying, too.  And has anyone caught the friendly competitions between Esposito and Ryan?  It's not in every episode, but they engage in some amusing one-upmanship an a fairly regular basis–even if it's only at the eyeroll level.  In "Home Is Where The Heart Stops", they compete to see who knows the most cop jargon for "criminal".  In another episode, "Hell Hath No Fury",  Ryan and Esposito are hip deep in garbage, dumpster diving for evidence, when one twits the other on the origins of a certain red couch.  And so on. 

I came to Castle from the Firefly fandom and I'm glad to see the writing for Castle is as top-notch as in Joss Whedon's show.  Especially when it comes to leavening the drama with the funny.  That's a classic Whedonesque touch:  after you've put your characters through the emotional shredder, Joss was once noted for saying, for God's sake, crack a joke.

syndydeb and lilmac1313, thank you for your compliments.    If you'd like to read my Firefly OC fic, you can read it here on my LJ site:

http://taimdala.livejournal.co…..c:+origins  There aren't as many comments attached because I posted them late to my journal.

However, I'd originally posted the bulk of of my fic at an OC FF Fanfic LJ community site, here:

http://community.livejournal.c…..mtheblack/  The bulk of the comments I'd ganrnered is here and I tend to discuss facets of my fic in them. (Well, I discuss facets of my fic at both sites' comments section.  I'm chatty.)  I share this site with another individual and her fic is posted here too.  Give hers a read, too–they're good!

Feel free to leave comments at either LJ site.  I'd love to hear what you think.  The fic has a long term arc, as you'll see when you read the topmost entry, and all the sections are in various stages of completion.  Bear with me.  I'm writing it as fast as it comes to me, but they are still arcs in progress.  Thanks so much for your interest, and I look forward to hearing from you soon. 

SydneyDeb said:

Shiny! should they be read in any order? I'm assuming bottom to top?

Yes…and …yes.

Okay, long story short.  On LJ, the posts are queued up with the most recent on top, in chronological order by date-of-post.  So yes, scroll down to the bottom and work your way up.  That's why I had the title labeled with segment numbers.  So you can keep track.  If you click on the tag for the fic, on the tag menu, you get ONLY the fic in question and you don't have to scroll past non-fic related posts.  Easy peasy.

That's the simple part. 

The not-so-simple part is a glitch in the order of my posts in the LJ community Others in the Black.  Part 1.5 is out of order, thanks to a snafu in font color that necessitated my reposting it, with no way to put it back in its proper place in the queue.  So watch carefully.  Go from 1.4, scroll to near the top of queue, read 1.5, and then scroll down to 1.6.  If you're on the community site, there is no way around that hiccup, not even by clicking on the tags link.

You can dodge that glitch by going to my LJ journal A Mere Whim.  It was that glitch that convinced me to post all my fic there, in sequential order, for ease of reading. 

And before you get disappointed at the last post date (now just a touch over a year), don't worry.  I've got the next segment almost finished and ready to post.  Once past that hump, the rest will come along fairly quickly. I just had to get past the logistics required by the setting before going on with the rest of the story.

I hope you enjoy reading it and please, do leave comments/concrit and tell me what you think.