LSMW and BAPI

I am fairly new to LSMW's but I have been able to successfully use them with Batch Input Recordings. I have been really struggling for the last few days trying to figure out how to use them with BAPI's. I have several BAPI's I need to use them with, but I have been trying it with Business Object BUS1088/CHARACTERISTIC_CREATE to start out because it is the simplest. I am fairly confident the data itself is o.k. because I can run it manually with the BAPI test button. I am getting IDOC errors though and I have no knowledge of IDOC's at all. If I go into Create IDOC Overview I can see a status of 51 (application document not posted)on quite a few records with details such as Internal Error Message 061, Start Characteristics Message 101 and another 5 of them with status 51 as well. Then I get Status 62 (Direct call started), 64 (IDoc ready to be transferred to application) and then 50 (IDoc added). My characteristic does not get created.

Am I perhaps missing a step somewhere?

How do I troubleshoot these errors to find out what is wrong?

Do I need to somehow run the BAPI Commit --- shouldn't the LSMW do this though?

ANY help at all would be VERY appreciated -- I have run out of ideas.