#178. First Chapter Analysis: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Fiction Writing Made Easy

Savannah Gilbo

Education, Fiction, Writing Tips, Arts, Bestseller, Writing, How To, Author, Writing Community, Books, Novel, How To Write Fiction, Writing Fiction, Writer, How To Write A Book

4.9 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 28 January 2025

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Romance, historical fiction & fantasy writers—tune in to learn how the opening pages of Outlander hook readers into the story. In this listener-voted episode, I team up with developmental editor and book coach Abigail K. Perry to analyze the opening chapter of Diana Gabaldon's genre-defying masterpiece, Outlander, on a macro and micro level. And truth be told, this might be one of our most challenging chapter analyses yet, but you'll learn exactly what makes these opening pages ...

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, I wanted to take a quick second to let you know that my Notes to Novel course
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0:55.9	doors close sometimes writers will ask me especially if they're writing a paranormal or fantasy or
1:00.9	sci-fi and the character starts in the normal world so in the normal world there might not be
1:05.8	elements of that you know a magic or whatever and it's, that's fine because you're right. In a normal
1:11.8	world, if we don't have magic, makes sense. But how do we still signal to the reader? Don't be
1:16.9	surprised if in chapter four there's a magician or don't be surprised if there's faster than like
1:21.8	travel. You know, so we do need to have those flavors, even as subtle as they are in this opening
1:26.4	chapter to set up the correct
1:28.6	reader expectations.
1:32.2	Welcome to the fiction writing made easy podcast. My name is Savannah Gilbo, and I'm here to
1:37.3	help you write a story that works. I want to prove to you that writing a novel doesn't
1:41.5	have to be overwhelming. So each week, I'll bring you a
1:44.5	brand new episode with simple, actionable, and step-by-step strategies that you can implement in
1:49.7	your writing right away. So whether you're brand new to writing or more of a seasoned author
	...

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