1999 October 28, Laura Taylor, “Re: Voyager Mary Sue Litmus Test”, in alt.startrek.creative[1] (Usenet):
One point that almost always seems to be overlooked every time the Mary Sue issue comes up is that *not* all original characters are Mary Sues. Although there are those who think OCs should be kept out of fanfic, it is possible and acceptable to write OCs into your stories without deifying them.
2001 July 22, Jungle Kitty [username], “"Original" writing (was: A Presumptuous Request)”, in alt.startrek.creative[2] (Usenet):
I think the biggest hurdle in creating an OC who will interact with the Trek characters in a significant way (other than the above mentioned lack of practice at creating rather than invoking characters) is the tendency of the writer to rush to the "good parts." I've read a number of OC stories in which a main character falls in love with the OC.
2003 July 3, mary_gentle, “Re: Fanfic and pandering”, in rec.arts.sf.composition[3] (Usenet):
Russell (if I remember her name right) worked far better for me when she was an OC than when she tipped over into outright MarySueism. But I would expect that to be the case.
2003 November 12, Farfalla [username], “Re: Question on Codes and such”, in alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated[4] (Usenet):
Every time someone creates an OC, there's always a danger of them becoming a Mary Sue.
2004 September 3, Ventura33 [username], “Re: Revised REV TOS "Jimmy Boy" [NC-17] (K/f, K/S, bisexuality, kinky sex, and assorted disquieting weirdness, 1/1)”, in alt.startrek.creative[5] (Usenet):
A Mary Sue doesn't necessarily have to be first-person; she just has to be an OC doing something that the author would like to be doing.
2005 February 3, Don Sample, “Re: Are OC's the kiss-of-death in BtVS fanfics?”, in alt.tv.buffy-v-slayer.creative[6] (Usenet):
Too often an OC tends to slip into a Mary Sue mould, but if it's well written, I have no problems with an OC as a protagonist of a fic.
2005 June 21, -Andy-, “FIC: The Apprentice - PG13 - 2 of 10(?)”, in alt.tv.buffy-v-slayer.creative[7] (Usenet):
If you hate fics where the main character is an OC (Original character) you'll want to skip this.
2006, Linda Green, Entering Potter's World: A Guide for Fanfiction Writers, Lulu.com (2006), →ISBN, page 165:
When faced with an OC, reviewers have much more leeway in reviewing. OC's[sic] are completely new characters that need to be developed as well as the canon characters were in the books.
2008, Rebecca W. Black, Adolescents and Online Fan Fiction, Peter Lang (2008), →ISBN, page 40:
For instance, one fan might create an OC or Original Character that does not exist in the primary media canon. Then, with that fan's permission (it is considered good form to request permission from the OC creator; however, this does not always happen) another fan may incorporate that OC into his or her texts.
2011, Tisha Turk, "Metalepsis in Fan Videos and Fan Fiction", in Metalepsis in Popular Culture (eds. Karin Kukkonen & Sonja Klimek), De Gruyter (2011), →ISBN, page 98:
In the broadest sense, we might say that any fan-created characters (usually called original characters, or OCs, to distinguish them from characters established by the source texts) are metaleptic whether or not they are authorial self-insertions: they are fan additions both to the story and to the discourse— the storytelling strategy—of the fantext, elements introduced from outside the source text.
