Diana Gabaldon wrote Outlander as a “practice” book because she thought historical fiction would be easy

Outlander author Diana Gabaldon says she wrote the book as practice and didn’t think anyone would read it

Image credit: Starz

In 1988 Diana Gabaldon was a research professor who thought it would be fun to write a novel. Since her area of expertise was history, she figured historical fiction would be the safest bet. Gabaldon wrote Outlander, believing nobody would read it, and boy was she wrong. To date, the Outlander book series has sold over 50 million copies and spawned a long-running television series on Starz. Not bad for a book she wrote as “practice.”

“I chose historical fiction,” Diana Gabaldon says during an Outlander spotlight panel at New York Comic Con 2022. “I wrote Outlander for practice to learn how to write a book, and luckily it worked. I was thinking, what’s the easiest kind of book I can write, because it is practice, no one is going to read it.”

“I said, well for me the easiest thing to write would be historical fiction. I was a research professor. I used to be a biologist in my previous life, but I did have access to the university library, so I know how to look things up.”