I've always wanted to do this meme.

[emmagrant01]

1. Fan fiction writers can write whatever they want. No, really. You don't need to ask permission from anyone to write your story. And no one else has the right to tell you what you should and shouldn't write about.

2. On being "OOC": I don't care if your Harry is so dark and twisted that he is unrecognizeable from the books, or if your Snape is flamboyantly gay, or if your Draco is a whiny princess. If someone else calls it OOC, so what? You wrote it for a reason. It made you happy, or at least it kept you from going crazy to get it out of your head. Someone else probably read it and liked it too. People who didn't like it know where the back button is.

3. On calling someone else's fic "OOC": Just say "I don't like your characterization because it doesn't match mine" and leave it at that. What is and isn't IC is highly subjective. No one in fandom can legitimately claim to know exactly what [insert character here] would do in a given situation, and at best we can agree to disagree. [I edited this one for clarity.]

4. Slash writers are writing for themselves and for each other, and not for anyone else. If you need a man's approval of your fic, then you have some self-esteem issues.

5. It's called "fiction" for a reason. We write about wizards and vampires and Jedi -- and you know, none of that shit really exists. (AFAIK, anyway.) So the amount of reality you inject into your fic is really up to you. I like my sex scenes with a dose of reality, but I don't begrudge anyone else their fantasy sex. See #1.