The pictures have nothing to do with the question. I was just looking through my pictures and liked these.

Depending on the story I'm writing, I either stick to Canon or blow it totally out of water.

What about you?

Depends on the fandom. I am a total fan of Severus Snape - I like to write AU fanfics in which he doesn't die ! But I wrote one depicting what happened to his body just after his death, so totally canon compliant. I wanted to mourn him I guess. But once it was out of my system, all I wanted was writing AU stuff about him.

AU can be highly challenging. The most important in my opinion is not the timeline, AU or canon. It's the credibility and plausibility of the events and characters. OOC is not much my thing except in parody and/or humor. In that case, if it's well written, it can be very entertaining.

All in all, you may write a character in any timeline you wish, provided the same character doesn't stray too much from his "canon" personality.

I really don't like AU fics very much, or stories that are really far out there or with OOC storylines. The problem is that most of the time they aren't done well.

But also, the reason why i read fanfics (and write them) is because i want to see realistic plots and storylines but that end really well or in the ways that I think they should. When stories aren't canon i just can't get into the stories.

I really really appreciate a well written in-character, realistic plotline. I will go on about it for weeks :)

Sometimes my canon becomes alternate universe as the show continues and disproves what I've written, but when I write it's always canon.

I generally stick with AU or things that happen after the fic ends (ie, after the Harry Potter epilouge, for exanple). It gives you more room to write. Other than that, I do random one shots in cannon...

Depends on the story I'm writing....

To me, most of the fun of fanfiction is in trying to fit the events you want to write about into canon. I don't write many canon pairings, but I'm careful to fit them into canon believably (i.e. through infidelity, or taking place before/after the canon pairings happened)

Both really, but it has been pointed out to me that I sometimes lean more towards AU.

Canon, but I'm planning on a story that CROSSES OVER into an alternate universe, if that counts.

Both but AU a bit more.

I normally read slightly AU, what-if scenarios and tangents from canon storylines. If I wrote fanfiction, I'd probably do the same.

Canon but with tangents and what-ifs. I'm rarely interested in total AUs. With those I feel it can be difficult to keep people in-character, and also the universe a fandom is set in is often part of what attracts fans.