Yes, you SHOULD write a survival story! I would love to see what you'd do with that, especially since survival games really do it for you. Actually, I don't think I realized you hadn't done it already. Nash and Petra lost in an alien wilderneeeessssss ...
Anyway, that's a REALLY interesting comparison, and I think you're right! :D I especially like your point about maintaining tension by keeping the characters on a knife edge, where you lose your dramatic momentum if they tip too far either way -- if the point is ongoing uncertainty about staying alive, it drains reader interest just as much if they're TOO beat up than if things are going too easily for them.
(I don't think I'd realized, 'til I'd written a few of these things myself, just how much time the writer of that kind of fiction actually spends putting their finger very gently on the character's side of the survival scales, tipping the balance in their favor just that much.)
Which might work in a sort of homesteading story, but probably not in the sort of "stranded in wilderness, must get out" story you're describing here.
Yeah, and I guess one thing I didn't really get into above is that these are totally different kinds of stories, and the Clan of the Cave Bear example is really more the former -- building a home in the wilderness -- as opposed to desperately trying to survive long enough to get out of the wilderness, which is more what I've written in the past. (But now I'm thinking I should try a homesteading story, just to see how that works out, and how different or similar the pacing turns out to be ...)
I have never heard of the podcast! I'll have to check it out; thanks for the tip. :D
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Anyway, that's a REALLY interesting comparison, and I think you're right! :D I especially like your point about maintaining tension by keeping the characters on a knife edge, where you lose your dramatic momentum if they tip too far either way -- if the point is ongoing uncertainty about staying alive, it drains reader interest just as much if they're TOO beat up than if things are going too easily for them.
(I don't think I'd realized, 'til I'd written a few of these things myself, just how much time the writer of that kind of fiction actually spends putting their finger very gently on the character's side of the survival scales, tipping the balance in their favor just that much.)
Which might work in a sort of homesteading story, but probably not in the sort of "stranded in wilderness, must get out" story you're describing here.
Yeah, and I guess one thing I didn't really get into above is that these are totally different kinds of stories, and the Clan of the Cave Bear example is really more the former -- building a home in the wilderness -- as opposed to desperately trying to survive long enough to get out of the wilderness, which is more what I've written in the past. (But now I'm thinking I should try a homesteading story, just to see how that works out, and how different or similar the pacing turns out to be ...)
I have never heard of the podcast! I'll have to check it out; thanks for the tip. :D