“Outlander” book series is mostly seen as Claire’s story. However, author Diana Gabaldon has said that this is not right. In an online post, she explained her journey of writing this story, which at the moment spans eight books and counting.

In a post on Facebook [see below], Gabaldon posted a portion of her discussion with another author. She explained that when she thought about writing a novel, all she had in her mind was to write about a man in a kilt. She emphasised that her books should not be viewed as being about this one character, be it Claire or Jamie.

Jamie didn’t have a name when Gabaldon first thought about writing about a man in a kilt. The author was putting down vague words in her mind down on paper in the first few days of writing. At that time she planned on writing her first novel for practice, and didn’t expect many people to read it.

As an Assistant Professor Gabaldon had access to the university library, which she put to good use. By the third day of writing, the author knew a few things about Scotland during the timeline in which her first book is set. She learnt about the Jacobite Rising and the Battle of Culloden, which is the main focus of the plot in the first book.

Here the idea was born to write about the Scots fighting the British. Then it occurred to Gabaldon to introduce a female character, to add some sexual tension. Later she thought of making the female character an English woman, which would give her an opportunity to write more conflict into the scenes.

So, the “Outlander” books began with a nameless Man in a kilt and an English woman. Gabaldon admits that the story can be seen as that of Jami and Claire, but the author added that such an observation has nothing to do with the importance of the two characters as people.

Credit: Diana Gabaldon/ Facebook

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