Better yet, can you imagine what it takes to be that best selling author or to have people wanting the rights to your book for television and movies? DO you dream of the day that People Magazine will do a feature article about you and your success as a writer?

Well, we have some of the answers for you! Diana Gabaldon has graciously offered a hint to her success in this interview she granted with this crazed fan. The RestStop Writers Newsletter is proud and honored to have it for you this month.

Welcome, Diana, and thank you for doing this interview for writers everywhere. We are thrilled you could take time away from your busy schedule to enlighten us on how you became a best selling author.
 

Our editor was fortunate enough to attend a Breakfast With Diana at a writing conference in Surrey BC, Canada ( I am Sooo.. jealous! ) She remarked on how you seemed to just ooze energy. It is evident in your writing too. Are you like most of our writers on our forum, in that chocolate is your booster or do you have some other secret that works?

Diana -"Well, my normal breakfast is a Milky Way Dark with a Diet Coke, if that tells you anything. Thanks for inviting me to chat with y'all--though I don't know about that "young, beautiful, etc." in your intro. I'm 47, though I suppose it's a matter of perspective whether that seems "young" or not; I mean, if you're 82...

Happily married, check. Ditto, three children--except when there are five or six, since we have a few outriders who prefer to live here instead of at their own houses.

Diana - "I honestly don't know about that. I _do_ think it's always possible for somebody to learn to write _better_ than they do to begin with. Whether that improvement will equate to salability -- well, that's anybody's guess.

For myself, I _was_ "born with it," insofar as I've always told stories--to myself, or to my sister (we shared a room until I was fourteen or so, and told long, interactive stories far into the night)--for as long as I can recall. Still, there's a major difference between having a story in your head, and being able to get it to come out convincingly on paper.

Writing well takes a lot of work, no matter who you are. It's also worth noting that there's writing, and then there's writing. I mean, some aspects of writing are straight craft-work, and these can indeed be taught. Others are less concrete, and probably can't be taught as successfully, if at all.

I think, here, that you're asking me primarily about fiction--and that's what I'm referring to, unless I say otherwise--but I should point out that there is a huge market for good nonfiction writing; I used to earn a living at this, in fact, writing everything from software reviews and computer manuals to political speeches and articles on how to clean cows' skulls. I do think most people can be taught to write at least competent nonfiction.

(One of the differences regarding the salability of nonfiction vs. fiction is simply the subjectivity of the latter. A story or novel might be _beautifully_ written, in terms of craft, technique, etc.--and not sell, just because it doesn't particularly appeal to a specific editor. A beautifully written piece on, say, bathroom scales, probably _will_ sell, if you find a publication that's interested in the general topic. I.e., "quality" is only one aspect of successful fiction, and not always the most important one. It _is_ the most important aspect of nonfiction.)

When you were writing your first book "Outlander", did you have a special way to break writers' block or to keep yourself motivated to write?

Diana - "Well, no. I _wanted_ to write, and I already knew (from a long career in writing all sorts of things) that the only way to get anything written is...er...to sit down and write it. I also knew that writing isn't always easy, but whether it's easy or not sort of doesn't have anything to do with it. If you want to write, you write, that's all.

I made only two rules for myself in writing OUTLANDER: 1) I wouldn't stop, until I had completed the book, and 2) I would do my absolute best in the writing, whether that was any good or not.These two rules equated, in practice, to a routine in which I tried to write at least six days a week (there would always be one night where I was just too tired, or out with my husband, or needed a brief mental break). If I could, I tried to write two pages a day (usually in bits and pieces, not in one session), but if I couldn't, I couldn't."

Some of us do strange and odd things in order to keep the creative juices flowing such as talk to our pets as one of our characters (and expect them to answer!) {G}. Would you share the strangest thing you ever did to spur on your creativity?
 
 

Diana - " I'm not sure I can think of anything _terribly_ strange. {g} I mean, I listen to music now and then while writing, and I like to burn candles while I work at night, but those aren't _necessary_ to the writing; I just find it helpful to have a "going to work" ritual--lighting my candle, fetching a big glass of crushed ice and a Diet Coke, choosing a CD...but I _can_ work perfectly well in my car or in a lecture hall or a bus.

Creativity is not external, and most of using it reliably is simply a matter of trusting yourself to do so. "

Okay, so it is late at night or your house is full of company, or the kids need this or that, but you have just the perfect scene playing out in your head. What do you do?
 
 

Diana  - "Well, if it's late at night, I'd just sit down and write; late night is when I do most of my writing (it's quiet, and the phone doesn't ring, and my particular biorhythm is at a high point late at night).

I think you're asking me, though, how one keeps a scene in mind when in distracting circumstances. I do this by means of what I call "kernels."

See, I never do plan scenes out in advance, but what I need to start writing is a "kernel"--a very vivid image that I can see in my mind's eye, a strong line of dialogue that I can hear, or perhaps just an emotional ambiance. But if I have that small concrete "kernel," then I begin with that, writing it down as best I can--and then I work forward and backward from that spot, and the scene evolves.

So, if I've had a bright idea for something while I'm driving or sitting in a meeting, I try to encapsulate it in one of these "kernels." One "kernel" I remember was just the vision of a woman's hand reaching for a cut-crystal glass--and a man's hand was pushing the glass into place, so that her hand would touch it. The woman's hand was white, the man's hand was black--and that particular little "kernel" encapsulated for me the insight I'd just had into the relationship between Jocasta MacKenzie and her butler, Ulysses. (It also caused me to realize--as I hadn't before--that Jocasta was blind.)

Anyway, once I've formulated a "kernel," it's fairly easy for me to keep that in mind, without going on to expand into the actual scene until I'm at my keyboard. "

When asked, our writers give varied answers of what they think is the correct way to discipline themselves to the routine of writing. Some refuse to edit as they write and some cannot stand to see the error glaring back at them and constantly rewrite. Do you just write and let the editors find the little glitches that need fixing or do you mend those fences yourself?

Diana - "I'm afraid you are under a terrible (if common) delusion about how writing and editing works, if you think that a writer simply slaps down any old thing and it's the editor's job to tidy it up into decent prose! Believe me, a manuscript should be the absolute best a writer is capable of before an editor ever sees it.

As for "the correct way" to write--there isn't one. Whatever methods allow you, personally, to get words on the page, are the "correct" methods for you. I can't imagine why people think there is "a" way to write, but they obviously do, because whenever I do seminars and workshops, and explain the various ways in which _I_ write, someone invariably comes up to me afterward and thanks me, saying, "Oh, I'm _so_ glad you said about how you write in pieces, because I've been trying for months and months to write an outline of my novel, and I haven't been getting _anywhere_, but everybody told me that I _had_ to have a fully worked-out outline before I could start writing the story, and..."

Look. Some people really, really _need_ outlines and plans and a fully-worked out idea, and some people just find that stifling. Some people can _only_ write effectively by jamming all the way through a draft at full speed and then going back to polish; others can _only_ write effectively if they polish and rewrite as they go.

I am myself a very slow and careful writer; I fiddle and I twitch and I put things in and take them out, and two pages a day is a good working pace for me--but those pages are _done_ when I've finished with them. I mentioned this to a colleague of mine-- another scientist, who had written a lot of nonfiction (as I had), but who was now writing novels. He instantly assured me that that was "wrong"; I should just dash through the story and get it all down, then go back and fiddle, if I had to.

Well, OK. I'm published, and he isn't. How "wrong" is it?

There aren't any _rules_ for this, you know (actually, you _wouldn't_ know if you listen to some people). If you end up with a good, well-written story, whose business is it whether you wrote it _backwards?"

Most novice writers are so enthusiastic about their glorious end product but fear rejection. Have you ever experienced the dreaded rejection slip?
 
 

Diana - "Well, sure. I've written all kinds of things during my career, from scholarly articles to Walt Disney comic books to software reviews to radio ads and political speeches to computer manuals. Naturally, every now and then, something would get rejected. I'd either send it someplace else, or fix it if I thought there was something wrong with it, or put it aside for later thought, if I didn't see anything in particular to be done with it at the time.

So far as novels go, OUTLANDER was my first attempt at a novel. My agent sent it to five editors simultaneously, and three of them called back immediately with offers.

OK. This means two editors rejected it, but it sort of didn't matter. 

By the way, it may be instructive for me to tell you about the two who _didn't_ want it. One of them sent back a letter saying, "This is a great story and I love it, but it isn't really a romance novel, and that's what we publish." The other--as I discovered a few years later--had received the manuscript on her last day in her job (she was going to another company). So she didn't bother even opening the package, but simply sent it back to the agent.

Just in case you thought that rejection automatically means there's something drastically wrong with your work. There are _lots_ of reasons why something may be rejected, and many of them don't have a thing to do with the quality of your writing. Others do, of course."

So once a writer decides to go for the gold, usually an agent is the next step. Could you tell us how you came to the agent who launched your writing success?
 
 

Diana - "Sure. I'd been told that it's very helpful to have an agent for fiction; an agent can both get a manuscript read more promptly, and can negotiate a contract much better than a writer can by him or herself. So I began looking around, checking into the question of agents. I chatted with published authors who had agents, asked for names, inquired who handled what kind of manuscripts, paid attention to casual comments about this or that agent, paid more attention to horror stories about bad agents , and in general, familiarized myself with the agent/author relationship, and got a feel for some names.

On the basis of stories that various people had told me, I kind of focused in on an agent named Perry Knowlton, who appeared to have an excellent reputation in the business, to be well-known, and to be valued by his clients. He also apparently had no prejudice against very long books, or against unorthodox books--both of which, I had noticed, I had. 

Now, I'd sort of "chosen" Perry as a good potential match, but didn't know how to approach him. I'd learned that he didn't take unsolicited queries, and he wasn't available online or in any other venues I was familiar with. Still, I was a long way from finished with my book, so I thought I'd continue with the research into agents, and either I'd find another good prospect that I could approach directly, or I'd figure out a way of querying Perry effectively.

So I went on chatting and asking questions, and one day I asked an online acquaintance named John Stith (who writes sf/mysteries) about _his_ agent. "Sure," he said. "I have an agent--his name's Perry Knowlton, and he's very good. I know you're about ready to look for an agent--would you like me to introduce you to Perry?"

I swallowed hard and said, "Er..well, yeah, John, that'd be nice. Thanks!"

So John sent Perry a note (a regular letter-type note) saying I was worth looking at, and I followed this with my own query letter, describing myself and my writing history briefly, and asking whether he might be interested in reading excerpts" of this "very long historical novel" that I had. (I didn't tell him I

wasn't finished writing it; "excerpts" were all I had.)

Perry graciously called back and said sure, he'd read my excerpts. So I sent them, along with a rough synopsis, and he took me on--on the basis of an unfinished first novel, which is not at all usual (I learned later). By and large, agents would like to see a complete manuscript, just to be sure that you _can_ finish one; it's much easier to start a book than to finish one.

Anyway, when I did finish the book--some six months later--Perry sent it to five editors, with results as described above."

Many of us dream of the day we see that first cheque as a published author; not so much as a financial reward, but because of the fact someone likes our work enough to pay us! Could you share the feeling you had when you received your first monetary appreciation for your work?
 
 

Diana -"Well, I was fifteen, and I won $15 as first prize in an essay contest. I thought that was Very Cool. However, the money was given to me as crisp, brand-new dollar bills, and I didn't want to spend it; it looked too nice. So I put it behind a picture that a boyfriend had painted for me--and I think it's probably still there!

Speaking in terms of fiction.... My first sale was a Walt Disney comic-book script. I'd written one script for this editor, which had been rejected--though with helpful comments explaining what was wrong--and when I got the second envelope from Disney, I thought it was the return of my second script, since I could feel that there were several pages inside. When I pulled them out, though, expecting to see my script with more comments, I found myself looking at a contract. I was so excited, I literally bounced off the walls for the next hour or so. 

By contrast, when Perry called to tell me that three editors had offered to buy my novel, I didn't know what to think. I knew this was good, mind you, but I had no idea how it would work out- -which one would end up with the book, how much they might pay for it, whether they'd all change their minds....so I tried not to think too much about it until I heard more.

As it was, it took Perry two weeks of negotiation among the bidders, at which point he came back to me, telling me that one bidder _had_ dropped out, and the other two were both offering me three-book contracts at similar (staggering) amounts of money, so it came down to a choice of editor--and he began describing the editors. At this point, I felt rather as though I'd been hit on the head with a blunt object--I just didn't believe it. {g}

This feeling of astonished numbness sort of continued for several weeks--it all seemed entirely unreal, the unreality accentuated by the fact that it took months and months for the contract to be worked out and for them actually to give me a check. So I never did feel madly thrilled about the money in that case-- though I certainly was thrilled by the _book_, when it eventually showed up. {g}"

Anyone I have talked to that has read your books all have one complaint. They find it very difficult to get the same challenge and satisfaction from any other author's writing for quite awhile after. (Personally it took me several attempts at six different novels) Do you have a favorite author that has impacted you that way?

Diana -" Hm. I don't think so--but see, I read omnivorously _all_ the time, and always have. Certainly, when you read a really great book, and then go to something else, the impact may not be the same--but I'm really a very uncritical reader; I tend just to take whatever I'm reading on its own terms.

If a book seems boring or badly-written, I mostly don't go on with it, but there's always a _huge_ stack of good books waiting in my TBR pile; I can always find something to read."

Preparation for writing like spending endless hours online just looking for --oh say-- How much did it cost to buy chocolate in the eighteenth century? -- can take time away from your actual writing. Your books are full of historical detail and accurate description, the research must have been extensive. What advice would you care to share with new writers on structuring their time between research and writing?"
 
 

Diana - "Heck, I don't know. This is another one, where some people_need_ to do it one way, and other people just can't stand to do it that way.

For me, I've always considered the writing most important, and so I've made the effort to write every day, doing the research concurrently and as opportunity allows. Some people _do_ spend hours in "preparation for writing," but that seems like a terrific excuse for procrastination, to me. Besides, some detail like how much it cost to buy chocolate in the eighteenth century--you don't need to stop writing for something like _that_. When I come to a spot where I need to put in some small detail that I don't know, I just leave a pair of empty square brackets--[ ] --and go on with the writing. I can look that up and fill it in, later.

Now, other things--like whether chocolate _existed_ in the form you have in mind in eighteenth-century France--_that_, you might have to look up, if it was the focus of the scene you were writing--or you might not, if you could as easily substitute tea or coffee, if you found out later that chocolate wasn't available. (It was, by the way--as a rather bitter drink, made with hot milk, into which the chocolate was grated. Chocolate _candy_--no.)

It's just common sense--how much do you absolutely _need_ to know, before you can write this particular bit--and the idiosyncrasy of working methods. People who plan things out and write in a straight line probably need to do more preliminary research than those of us who don't and don't."

In the 80's you created a journal called Science Software and conducted seminars for scientists (using the old adage ' write about what you know' ) and today you teach at writing seminars. Can we expect to see a book or a computer software program to teach new writers the key to success from you? (Hint Hint)
 
 

Diana -"As for the key to success, I couldn't say. {g} As to a book on writing, though--yeah, that's sort of underway. It'll be called THE CANNIBAL'S ART, and right now, I'm just collecting the bits and pieces of advice I talk about in the CompuServe Writers Forum now and then, plus the occasional seminars and workshops I give at writers conferences. I'm just tossing these all into a separate directory on my hard disk--when the compost heap starts sprouting mushrooms, then I guess I'll write the book. {g}"

I could go on forever asking about your plots, characters, and style, never mind how you have mastered the craft of writing, but if there was just one thing you had to offer in the way of advice to the aspiring writer, what would that be?
 
 

Diana - "I always say, "There _are_ no rules," and this is true. On the other hand, there are some bits of generally applicable advice, that I'd give to any writer. So, Gabaldon's Three "Rules" of Writing:

1: Read. (Everything!)

2. Write. (All the time!)

3. Don't stop!! "

Diana has a new book coming
out next month (June 29), titled THE OUTLANDISH COMPANION (in the US; the UK title for the same book is THROUGH THE STONES).  She'll be doing a short
tour in Canada, June 24-30 (they'll have books shipped in early for
it)--in Toronto, Kamloops, Kelowna, and the Vancouver area.  Then
she does a quick US tour between July 6-17: Seattle, San Francisco,
LA, Albuquerque, Denver, Cincinnati/Dayton, Boston, and in Connecticut   Details will be
posted on her Web page

Chris Chamberlin

1999