How to be realistic in supposedly realistic fiction?

I'm having problems with genres right now. My story is currently under 'Realistic', about four women stranded from home, and in the early parts of the story, they are lost in a vast forest caught in winter.
Now then, it's obvious Mother Nature has a lot of dangers and that it's almost impossible to survive all these dangers without proper equipment. So, a lot of the events that happen during the "Forest" stage (as I call it) are mostly composed of, well, rare and unbelievable miracles that have, in fact, happened to people in real life.
This story of survival is meant to be realistic, but...it doesn't even sound realistic at the beginning of the story (which is vital to draw readers), not by a long-shot, if you ask me. What should I do? Change the genres completely or...?

Define your definition of realistic.

Are we talking basic survival story, where they have to hunt and gather and such to survive, or does the forest come alive? Are there unnaturally things crawling from the depths of hell to kill them? Are the trees moving on their own to snag and capture?

If the answer is no, then your story is probably realistic. You just need to work on details. Don't glide over the imagery, indulge it. Bring it to life. Above all, make sure you do your research and that everything is accurate. Details are your best friend in a story like this.

Iggy wrote:Define your definition of realistic.

Are we talking basic survival story, where they have to hunt and gather and such to survive, or does the forest come alive? Are there unnaturally things crawling from the depths of hell to kill them? Are the trees moving on their own to snag and capture?

If the answer is no, then your story is probably realistic. You just need to work on details. Don't glide over the imagery, indulge it. Bring it to life. Above all, make sure you do your research and that everything is accurate. Details are your best friend in a story like this.

Definitely what I needed to hear! Thanks, Iggy!

You're welcome :3

This quote sums up the limits of realism in fiction fairly well:

"The truth is stranger than fiction, because fiction has to make sense." - Mark Twain

Miracles, one in a billion twists, "nobody could survive that (but somebody did)"s, and general "how in the world did that happen"s exist in reality all the time. It's an artifact of living in chaos. They can happen to the same person over and over and over again, and it's obviously realistic because it's real.

However, in fiction, the rules are a little different.

People want fiction to make logical sense. They don't want one in a billion miracles, because one in a billion miracles are often used as cliches to get the MCs out of trouble, especially if they happen multiple times to the same people. They want trouble, they want everything to be cause and effect.

This means, you can't have hunches save the character's life even if that happens all the time. You can't have "oh I saw a sign so I changed my path and it prevented me from getting hurt" even if that happens all the time. You can't have "a tree fell on me but I was in just the right spot the branches protected me" even it that happens enough to be all the time.

All of these things are realistic in real life, but they're cheating in fiction. They let the character not be in trouble and not have the average repercussion. There's miracles we accept in real life because we have to accept them, simply because they existed, but in fiction we don't have that luxury. People read the absolute miracles and go "that could never happen" regardless of whether or not it happened in real life. The fact it happened in real life turns into a "well it was one in a billion so sure it can happen there but it doesn't happen regularly so why did you use it?"

Miracles turn into deus ex machinas really fast. These are best avoided in fiction, because readers feel they're nothing more than a cop out to avoid getting the characters in trouble.

Just because it happened in real life, doesn't mean it's realistic for fiction.

Considering the amazing input you have already received, this probably isn't even needed, but I'll toss it out there anyways. If you like a genre, don't change to fit your readers. Your readers will change to fit you. When you're writing about something you really like to, your work will be 100X better than that you would write when you are just doing it to please readers. (My personal example would be the Hunger Games, but this is just an opinion.) Go with what feels right!