As a latecomer to fan fiction but a professional writer and editor, I'm somewhat bewildered by the concept of "out of character" fan fic.

It seemed to me, when I started reading fan fic, that the whole point of it is to take the characters we love and write stories about them. This appears to me to require that one actually be able to identify the characters, at least well enough to, oh, pick them out of a lineup. And then, you know, write about them.