In contemporary times, survival stories are becoming quite famous; even though they are a part of the fictional world, these books still give a slight touch to the current situations and sometimes are also based on actual life events. Currently, books on survival stories have become part of student’s academic curricula. They are often assigned creative writing projects with the theme based on survival mystery stories. This genre includes diverse categories, including character development with gritty and wit personalities, complex plot lines, and well-defined settings. But, they also include catastrophic situations, enthralling cliffhangers, characters that ought to survive on their intuitions, dark, serious, and wit and adventures. Best survival books are all about characters who face life-threatening challenges but still manage to beat the odds.

This blog post presents the readers with tips and tricks to writing a riveting survival story.

A survival story requires high risks conflict.

The survival thriller book series is about high stakes; therefore, when writing a survival story, the writer must create particular circumstances in which the protagonist is stuck dealing with high-risk threats. The story has to exist with heart-pounding moments of fear and terror when it becomes pretty unsure if the character survives till the end. Trivial situations or scenes in which the readers doubt about the character not possibly surviving the end kill the tension and suspense of the story before it even starts. So ensure when writing a survival tale, you avoid long, tedious, and slow walks in the forest – at least not abruptly creating a horrific scene.

True-Story Based Characters

Best dystopian future books can be the best example when plotting a story based on real events-based characters, which includes a striking protagonist who solely depends on his previous life experiences and clever instincts to survive. Survival tale characters usually don’t have mystical abilities or massive skill sets. The main character in a survival story is typically a detective, private investigator, or just a normal civilian who aims to put the bad guy behind bars. These characters develop skills and rely on their abilities and intuitions to overcome challenges. One such book that made top highlights among the best thriller books is author Owen Davis’s novels Salvation Hoax Series comprising of three enthralling sequences that will keep the readers gripped till they finish reading the books.

Create Thrilling Plots-Twists

When plotting a survival story, the writer must develop gripping and thrilling plot lines for the main story to become a page-turner. Readers get utterly hooked to figure out how the protagonist will survive the horrific situations and make it alive with victory. So, always remember to create a prevailing plot, such as enduring a natural catastrophe or a shipwreck, but also incorporate trivial plots to add the elements of intrigue and suspense.

Detailed Background Settings

Writers must also incorporate detailed background settings to help readers understand the true sense of the difficulties characters endure. Describe the backdrops, including the terrain, climate, time period, location, and prevailing mood. Use eloquent adjectives, such as breezy, picturesque, ominous, supernatural, and insuperable, to help readers imagine the intense situations. The main objective is to help readers live the events through the main character’s eyes and directly experience the struggles and challenges.

Survival Story Needs to Have Urgency

For many writers, it’s pretty easy to write a slow survival story, but it can get boring to finish the whole book. It could be plausible to experience a person slowly famishing or something like that, but it doesn’t drive the story forward and make it compelling. But, if you provide the character with some deadline – a life-risking injury or a life threat to someone they dearly love that becomes undoubtedly imminent. It enhances a layer of suspense and tension to the story that will keep the reader high on their toes, pleading to know what occurs next or if the hero makes it or dies.

Keep the Story Plausible

Finally, your survival thriller story needs to be plausible. Readers often lose interest in books that are grounded on faulty premises. One such idea that can likely bore the readers is a post-apocalyptic EMP story in which the EMP ends up killing most of the life on Earth. These stories are not genuine, as EMPs only affect electric devices and not the well-being of the creatures. So whatever situations your character ends up in, ensure to make it something plausible, genuine, and scientifically believable, or you’ll bore your reader.