"E. Knudson" <knudson@u.washington.edu> wrote:

  One of the greatest standards of an piece of literature is that the main
character(s) change.  That's what makes you feel for the character, you
are with him/her as they undergo new experiences which institute change.
 
  Addmittadly, it's often no fun if the character starts out as OOC,
without letting you (the reader) experience what they have in becoming
OOC.

Exactly.  What you describe in the first paragraph is not an 
out-of-character story.  If the characters begin the same but change 
due to events, that indicates a deep understanding of the characters, 
not throwing out their properties and making up new ones.  It's 
stories where the characters are never in character that I can't
understand the appeal.

Remember fanfic writing has its own challenges, apart from original 
fiction.  Because the characters have been created for you, a good 
fanfic writer needs to demonstrate an understanding of how they tick. 
That's one of the things I don't like about the "OOC" concept.  It's 
too easy to use it as an excuse for a bad concept.  "It's not that I 
don't understand how Ranma behaves.  I'm intentionally writing him 
out of character."

------RM