We all have it, and it's highly contagious. What is it? Outlander fever.
I must confess that I've never read Diana Gabaldon's epic tale nor will I be reading it anytime soon. Now hear me out before you judge because there is a method to my madness.
As a Scottish historical romance author, I pretty much make it a point not to read other Scottish authors because I don't want to be influenced by someone else's idea. I want my stories to be fresh and know that the crazy ideas I come up with are my own.
But...
There was no way on God's green earth that I was going to miss watching the magnificent Scottish countryside, and I sure as heck wasn't going to miss men in kilts speaking Gaelic! Och, I've watched, and I've DVR'd so that I can long for Scotland again and again.
I've been watching Outlander every week with my daughter and she always provides commentary during the show. I especially enjoy the 50 questions asked in the middle of conversations between Jamie and Claire.
"You write this stuff. How would you write it? What would you write next? Would you have written that scene that way?"
These are the types of questions asked ALL THROUGH THE SHOW. You know...to the point I'm sushing my lovely teenager. As we sat and watched the latest episode, my daughter continued her interrogation of me.
"There isn't enough of Jamie and Claire together in this episode. Is that what you would've done?"
I'm not sure why I did this, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity. We get to a point in the show where I've seen that particular moment in a clip a million times on-line. I recited about four lines from memory and spoke at the same time as Jamie. My daughter's eyes widened, her jaw dropped, and she said, "How in the world did you know that? Seriously. How did you know? That was incredible!"
I shrugged with indifference. "I don't know. You asked me how I would write it. Scottish historical romance author, remember?"
"Mom, you are AMAZING! I knew you were good, but that was GREAT! You are really awesome!"
What she doesn't know won't hurt her. I know. I'm verra bad.
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Your experience is a lot like mine with my husband. Every time any of the Scottish characters speak, he says, "What did they say?" So then I miss the next line because I'm repeating what was just said. I'm not talking about when they're speaking in Gaelic. He can't understand the accents.
ReplyDeleteUgh. That drives me crazy, too. I tell my husband to wait for commercial because there aren't any. ;-)
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