OC
/oʊ siː/
Very CommonOriginal Character. A character invented by a fan and placed into an existing story world, not from the original source.
OCs vary from background extras to fully developed characters with their own storylines. Sharing or receiving feedback on OCs is a major part of fan culture. Being told your OC is a Mary Sue is a common form of criticism.
Real-world examples4 examples
| # | Example | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | working on my oc for this fandom for two years. she finally has a full backstory | Sharing progress on a long-developed original fan character. | tumblr, 2024 |
| 02 | drop your ocs. i want to draw them | Inviting other fans to share their original characters so the poster can create fan art. | x, 2024 |
| 03 | my oc would absolutely destroy every character in this show and she has a reason to be there | Humorously overstating a fan character's power while also defending the character's story logic. | tiktok, 2023 |
| 04 | got told my oc was a mary sue because she's good at her job. she also has severe attachment issues and one friend. what | Defending an OC against criticism by pointing out that actual flaws exist. | tumblr, 2023 |
Use it when
- You created a fan character that does not exist in the original source material.
- Referring to any fan-invented character used in fan fiction or fan art.
- Sharing your own invented character for feedback or in collaborative fan spaces.
Do not use it when
- The character already exists in the original source material.
- You mean a self-insert specifically.Use “self-insert” instead.
OC vs self-insert
OC
An OC is any fan-invented character, which may or may not be based on the creator.
VS
self-insert
A self-insert is specifically a fan character who is a stand-in for the author.
Origin and context
Term from fan fiction and fan art communities, widely used on early fan forums, Deviantart, Fanfiction.net, and Tumblr. Became a standard vocabulary word across all fandom spaces by the 2010s.
- First seen
- late-1990s
- Confidence
- medium
Cite this page
Use this stable URL to reference the entry.
https://slang.fyi/ocUpdated: 2026-08-28License: CC BY 4.0