Outlander Starz Series Update from Diana Gabaldon

This was posted on Diana's Facebook page in the wee hours of the AM.  It answers a ton of questions we discussed at MOP Chat last night.  She has nothing to do with the casting or writing of the Outlander series on Starz:

"OK, a slight correction: the production people tell me that the sixteen episodes are all for the _first_ season. (And if all goes well with that...they then might get a second season. This is kind of how television works, you know?)

Many thanks for your delight and enthusiasm! I'm sure with support from you, the show will do just fine.

As for the "oh, they'll RUIN it/oh,I can't stand to watch/oh, it'll be cheap and cheesy/oh, they're sure to mess up the characters/destroy the storyline, etc., etc., etc."...comments, you guys are of course welcome to your opinions, too--but feel free to curb your enthusiasm at any time.

I am NOT writing this show. I am not CASTING this show. I do not have CONTROL over this show. (I do have input, and the production people are very kind about asking my opinion on things. This does not mean they have a legal obligation to take it. )

You know why not? Because I don't want to. I'm a novelist, not a screen-writer. I'm a naturally solitary writer--I don't even have research assistants; my books are mine alone. Screen-writing, by contrast, is an intensely collaborative business.

Scripts go through dozens (literally) of iterations, being worked on by any number of people--then reworked by other people, over and over. A new director (for a show or an episode) can insist on a new direction or changes; an influential actor can ask for changes. Multiple writers means constant--and I do mean constant--collaboration.

I'm not a team player. (Ask anybody. ) AND I have books to write. Were I to be involved in a TV series beyond simple consulting, it would suck my soul, waste my life, prevent me ever writing another book, and be generally a Bad Idea. I'm not doing it.

I would also probably not be good at it, whereas I have a good deal of faith in the very experienced and talented people who _are_ doing it. I saw the pilot script and thought it was an amazingly good adaptation (by marked contrast to various film scripts I've seen over the years ).


So, you know....chill. Cross your fingers, hope for the best, and if you can't stand to watch, wait and read the reviews, and if it looks OK, you can get the DVD. "

I work with a film production company.  And as someone who has collaborated on script revisions, I can tell you that Diana is one thousand percent correct about what screenwriters do.  It's a never-ending process.  I helped my partner revise a script two years ago.  We went start to finish - word for painstaking word - multiple times...then went back over many scenes a zillion times.  And this was all before pre-production.  The script was then changed by producers during production.  Things were tweaked on set.  Now - long after we went into post-production - we are STILL changing scenes...deleting scenes...moving scenes around...adding scenes that had been cut.  Even changing music.  The film is "finished" (it's never really finished)...yet cutting just one word from one sentence can have a massive impact on the feel of a scene.

So basically...as I said last night...we all want to prepare ourselves for the fact that things are NOT going to be exactly as we read them.  

If you are happy this series is being adapted for TV...then sit back, strap in, hold on, and wait for the outcome.  If your expectations aren't unreachable, you might just be pleased.  

If you are NOT happy this series is being adapted for TV; don't watch.  It's that simple. 

But for the love of ALL that's holy in this world, let's not BITCH about it for the next year...and let's definitely not be rude/snotty/snarky to - or about - each other about it.  It is SO NOT WORTH IT.  The series is NOT going to be exactly like the book.  Hopefully close, as Diana said...but not exact.