The writing life… Outlander
How many Outlander fans do we have out there? If you’re not familiar, it’s a show that originated on the Starz network in 2014 and is currently on Netflix.
Based on a series of novels by author Diana Gabaldon, it’s the story of a British woman who, in 1946, unintentionally travels back in time to 1743 Scotland and finds her soul mate in a strapping, handsome Highlander warrior who’s so hot he’ll singe your eyebrows if you sit too close to your TV screen. The novels, as well as the TV series they spawned, are considered multi-genre, meaning they are historical romance, mystery, adventure, and fantasy.
Gabaldon, an Arizona native, was a marine biologist before she quit her day job to write full time. She was working on what would become the first Outlander novel “just for practice, to learn how to write a novel.” She never intended to show it to anyone. Eventually, she decided to post an excerpt on a scientific intranet site so a few of her marine biologist colleagues could read it. Well, lo and behold, one of her colleagues was so impressed that he passed it along to a friend of his who just happened to be a literary agent. Gabaldon’s story quickly sold and she was signed to a publisher based on this unfinished, first “practice” novel, plus two still-to-be-written sequels.
Geez Louise, talk about luck!
The first Outlander novel was published in 1991, and over the years, as subsequent books were released and the series grew in popularity, several attempts were made to come up with a script for a movie. However, despite accomplished screenwriters in Hollywood trying their hand at writing an Outlander movie script, Gabaldon couldn’t bring herself to sign off on any of them. She felt a two-hour movie could not do justice to this sweeping, multi-book saga, so she rejected one script after another.
While I completely agree with Gabaldon that a two-hour movie could never adequately tell this epic story, I can’t get over the fact that this newborn, still-wet-behind-the-ears author had the cojones to reject multiple attempts by well-known scriptwriters in Hollywood to turn her story into a movie. You better believe that if Hollywood came calling for my Shaman series, I’d be so star-struck and blinded by bended-knee humility and gratitude, I’d sign off on it, even if they proposed an animated musical starring Alvin and the Chipmunks!
A similar Cinderella story happened to Margaret Mitchell, the author of Gone With the Wind. Written during the 1920s by the Georgia native while she recuperated from a broken ankle, Mitchell’s tome was never intended to be seen by anyone other than the history buffs in her family. She didn’t think anyone else would be interested. But a representative from a publishing house in New York came to Atlanta “looking for new talent,” got wind of her work, and expressed interest. The book was published in 1936 and, in addition to becoming a wildly popular bestseller, it was, of course, quickly snatched up by Hollywood. It even won the Pulitzer that year. No one was more shocked by all of this than Mitchell herself.
But back to Outlander. Having watched a few interviews of author Diana Gabaldon, I can say she has a level of … well, let’s be kind and call it “confidence”… in her work, and given the passionate worldwide popularity of her books and the series, I can see why. It is a captivating story. And knowing how the series was birthed, it’s also a story of an author’s wildest dreams coming true.
In reality, for every Gone With the Wind or Outlander Cinderella success story, there are literally thousands of writers whose stories are just as enthralling, with characters who are just as complex and memorable. Unfortunately, most of these stories will never see the light of day beyond the author’s family and friends, and some of them won’t even be interested. Another reason why writing is, at its core, a labor of love.
