No Power, No Water, No Plot Holes: Writing Off-Grid Hardships That Keep Readers Hooked

Romanticized visions of off-grid living often overlook the brutal hardships—hauling water for miles, battling extreme temperatures without modern climate control, and surviving isolation when medical help is hours away.

In this episode, we break down the gritty details of off-grid survival that will elevate your storytelling—from historical dramas to dystopian fiction, Amish romance, and modern homestead tales.

🔥 What you’ll learn: ✔️ The real struggles of off-grid life & why it’s not always peaceful solitude ✔️ How survival hardships create tension, stakes, and immersive character development ✔️ Common misconceptions writers make when depicting self-sufficient living ✔️ Storytelling strategies to weave authentic obstacles into compelling stories

If you want to write realistic survival fiction, deepen the suspense, and avoid plot holes, this episode is a goldmine of inspiration!

🔔 Subscribe for part two, where we explore even more ways to make off-grid life believable and gripping!

Transcript

Romanticized visions of off-grid living often focus on freedom, self-sufficiency, and the beauty of untouched landscapes—but what about the hardships that test both body and mind? In this first part of our two-part episode, we’re peeling back the layers of off-grid reality, exploring the grueling labor of daily survival, the struggle to haul water, and the stark isolation when medical help is miles—or even days—away. From the crushing startup costs of a modern homestead to the unforgiving lack of temperature control, these challenges span historical, contemporary, and post-apocalyptic contexts, offering rich opportunities for writers to craft authentic, high-stakes stories. Whether you’re writing survival fiction, dystopian worlds, modern romance, Amish, or gritty historical tales, understanding the true cost of living off the grid will deepen the realism and tension in your storytelling.

Welcome to Writing Rural with Alley, the fiction writer’s weekly inspiration station for rural life and lifestyles, from historical to post-apocalyptic, helping you bring your rural stories to life! I’m Alley, and this is episode #107, No Power, No Water, No Plot Holes: Writing Off-Grid Hardships That Keep Readers Hooked. Stick around to the end to find out all the ways things could possibly go wrong in your story. 

I know this is a week and some late. We are in the middle of tornado season and it has been lively. Don’t worry, we are perfectly safe. I can’t say the same for the tree in my pond. I’m still not looking forward to wading out there with a chainsaw to get it out, but we do what we have to. Enough about me, let’s get into this.

It seems online influencers today are hyping people up to live off the grid. While there are a ton of amazing things that come with living off the grid (that we will cover in a future episode), there are also some cons that no one is talking about. So today, I’m going to cover many of them for you. 

First up is that living off the grid is a physically demanding task. Now, the amount of physical work will depend on what kind of off-grid you are writing. Historical stories before modern conveniences would be far more physically demanding than a modern off-the-grid story. Stories that have just switched to solar, but still have all the modern conveniences, would still need to do regular inspections on the equipment and upkeep. 

However, most stories are either without electricity altogether, in modern times with vehicles and such, are before the invention of these things, or in apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic scenarios, and I want to take a minute to cover those. (Yes, I have some episodes about unexpected workouts, but I’m assuming not everyone has heard them, so bear with me if you have.) 

First, everyone needs water. This could be hauled in from a well, or hauled in from the local river or stream. Some wells can be a ways away from a home as they dug in the best place for water, and picked the best and safest place for their home. A walk to the river or stream could be a few hundred feet to a few miles away. If they are lucky and have water storage areas, they can get more water on good days to save for bad days or even sick days. Other wise they have to go every day, no matter what. Here in tornado alley, that isn’t a wise idea at certain times. 

Personally, we had a well with a hand pump. That means you physically pumped the water up a pipe. It was relatively close to the home. However, our well was a hand-dug well in areas where most wells were 900 plus feet. The well often ran dry in the summer. To manage this and make sure all the animals were watered, we would pile 55 gallon barrels in the back of a truck and drive a few miles to the river to fill them. We would haul water in five-gallon buckets to the barrels, and later from the barrels to stock tanks (that is where cattle get water on a farm without a pond or stream) to make sure the animals never ran out of water. 

Now five gallons of water weight roughly 41.7 LBS and we had at least eight 55 gallon barrels. Doing the math, we were moving just over 3,669 LBS in roughly an hour’s worth of work. 

Other things in rural life that are a work out include, but are definitely not limited to, felling trees, chopping wood, butchering animals (especially if the animals are large, or there are many of them), kneeding bread, moving rocks, building log cabins, making shingles or even boards, digging wells, plowing a garden, tilling a garden, moving large amounts of dirt to make mound gardens, fill holes and more, the making, moving, and stacking of hay or straw, making fire breaks, shoveling snow to get to animals to tend them in the winter, and so much more. 

Not only is this physical, but it’s all on your character. Ok, yes, they could have a family to help, or even some employees, but if they are not in there working to, it is unlikely to get done. People in rural life, the Amish included, don’t help lazy people. You are expected to carry your weight, and if you don’t work, you reap the consequences of it. 

Now, if you are writing a modern off-the-grid story, the initial cost can be huge. There are two options: making an off-the-grid home or converting an existing home into an off-the-grid home. If I had a choice, I would build my own home and have all the new safety standards, with built-in things, like water storage, and a huge basement that doubles as not only a storm shelter, but a root cellar for food storage. 

That said, converting a modern home is the most common. This can include rewiring for solar, better insulation, removing electronics, and more storage for things your character will need such as easy to preserve food, wood stove, a place to store wood inside the home, more blankets to stay warm in the winter, games and other entertainment instead of a TV, and much more. 

If your character is using solar power, this is often the highest priced item, and at least where I live, it can be several thousand dollars up to six figures. 

Let’s not forget that in modern rural areas, the Internet or even cell service can be spotty at best. Yes, I have lived in several dead zones. That means nothing but satellite phones work there. Even the emergency services had to drive five miles up the road to get the signal to let their dispatch know what was going on. 

The next most expensive is having a well dug. These can be 30,000 dollars on the cheap end. It only goes up from there. 

Living off the grid in modern times normally comes with some equipment. Most people have a chainsaw (many times more than one), a mower, a tractor, and tractor attachments such as plows, hay balers, tillers, and more. Other things I have seen are saw mills (for making boards), cement mixers, wood chippers, backhoes, winches, and more. 

Now don’t think you are getting away that easily. If your character does not have electricity, they will have to buy alternatives, sometimes called hand tools. These include, but are not limited to, wash tubs and an agitator to wash clothes, clothes line, clothes pins, shovels, rock bars, axes, hatchets, canning jars, pressure cooker, water bath pot, mattock, knives, and so much more. 

Now, all of these things are time-consuming! Modern conveniences speed things up greatly. Not having them slows everything down. An example I already stated was that we could haul about eight 55 gallon barrels of water in a truck and refill stock tanks in about an hour. If I had walked to the river and back with a five-gallon bucket, I don’t think I could have ever filled a stock tank even if I did that all day, every day, for a week. However, if someone had solar and a well (assuming the well is not dry like ours was), they could likely use a garden hose from the well house to refill the stock tank assuming it was close enough. 

All of that is to say that you need to be mindful of how long things will realistically take. This is different in different circumstances. It’s also different for different people, and some people can surprise you. 

My favorite example is that we had a friend who was a body builder and could bench press so much weight that it bent the bar before he maxed out. So, an extremely strong man. At the time he came to help us get water, I was pregnant and stayed in the truck to pour the water into the 55 gallon barrel and the guys brought me the buckets of water. He lasted about five minutes walking the ten feet with a bucket of water because he was not used to the extended amount of work, but only a short burst. So keep in mind, endurance is a very underrated skill that will serve characters well, or not if they don’t have it. 

Another time-consuming thing is cooking. Assuming they don’t have solar power, they won’t have electricity to use a refrigerator, microwave or even an oven. This means no pre-made meals unless they took the time to make them and can them. Bread will have to be home made. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus any snacks they might have. Then they have to clean up, because you never want the food to stick to the pots if you can help it, or your character will be scrubbing. 

On top of that, there is no instant heat, or hot water. Your character will be boiling water to if they want to cook, bath, wash dishes or laundry. It’s easiest to boil a stock pot of water at a time, but that can take a lot of time. Let’s say they use a water bath canner to boil water. They are about 21 quarts. Now in takes 9 minutes to boil one gallon of water and one gallon is four quarts. If you math that out, it means that it takes 47 minutes to boil 21 quarts of water. Now imagine doing that with every meal to do dishes. 

Wood stoves and fireplaces must be tended to if your character doesn’t want the fire to go out. However, some people lived alone and let’s say they went hunting. They might come back to find there is no fire, and it’s as cold in the home as it was outside. They have to restart the fire, and wait for the home to warm up again, Which I can tell you from experience, can take much longer than your character wants to wait when they are freezing. 

Now, many, if not all, of the things your characters will be doing come with physical risk. I’ve been people hit their leg with an ax because it glanced the wood and kept going. Tractor accidents usually end with missing body parts. Silos can be dangerous in many ways, but being buried alive in whatever crop is inside is the most common. In fact, first responders in our area train for silo rescues. I personally burned off my eyebrow, eyelashes, and the whole front half of my hair starting a fire in the fireplace. 

There is also the risk of wild animals. Being attacked by a bear, or gored by a wild hog, or even a cow. Getting flogged by a rooster is common, but most of us eat them right after, because they will not stop flogging once they have started. 

Something to remember is that if this is history, there might not be a hospital. In modern times, most of us don’t live close to a hospital. I currently live in what is considered a close place, but it will take me a half-hour drive, if I am doing 60 MPH the whole way. If your characters are farther off the grid, in a wilderness, there is not a hospital, or not without a long wait, and that is only if they have a way to let the outside world know they need help. 

Many times, your character, or maybe their family, will be the doctor. Now, most people learned what to do as they grew up in history, so they might have a better idea what to do than someone in an apocalypse who has never done any first aid themselves. That fact alone will make doctors, nurses, dentist, and even veterinarian very valuable to society in an apocalypse. 

Caring for ill and elderly people can also be harder off the grid. Even with modern conveniences, it can be challenging, especially if they need home healthcare. However, heat and cold are more dangerous to the elderly, and temperature control is not something people have if they do not have electricity. There are still all the physical dangers that come with living off the grid. Plus, if a character has dementia, it will be harder to find them if they wander off. 

Now some elderly characters will become bedridden. Then your other character has to juggle caring for them with everything else that will need done. This includes, but not limited to, changing them if they have a bathroom accident, feeding them, keeping them warm or cool depending on the season, making sure they don’t get bed sores and caring for any that form, and much more. 

If your character is caring for someone who is ill, and they are living without electricity, I can tell you from experience that having a fever in the summer heat is miserable, and I would not wish it on anyone. You feel as if you are baking from the inside out, and any little relief is a godsend. It’s hard to sleep in the heat with a fever, and your character will feel as if they are drifting in and out of consciousness. 

Now, after an apocalypse, if there are no new medicines being made, people will still want meds, and will have to make their own. This makes herbalists some of the most valuable people. Herbal healing and medicine books will be sought after. Some common ones are turning willow bark into aspirin, plantain weeds into antibiotics, and making black salve, also known as drawing salve. Drawing salve is used to pull out infections, and for spider bites. It does not work for gangrene, or rabies, but some people do believe it will. Desperate characters will try desperate things. 

One quick reminder before we get to all the ways things could go wrong in your story. To help others find this content, pop on over to Apple podcasts and leave me a review. Or if you are watching on YouTube, drop me a comment and say hello, or ask a question. This is the best way to help others find my content. 

Now, for everyone’s favorite part, what could possibly go wrong in your story? 

Likely to go wrong: After the apocalypse, your character quickly learns how much physical work is needed for living off the grid. They are out of shape, and it is exhausting every single day in the beginning, making them an easy target for thieves and bullies. 

Likely to go wrong: After the Apocalypse, your character realizes they no longer have access to their quick reference on their phone. They don’t know what to do and had are forced to learn many things the hard way. 

Possible to go wrong: Your character has a stock tank to water their cattle. However, it starts to grow algae and is no longer safe for the animals to drink out of. 

Possible to go wrong: Your character is caring for an elderly character or a character dying of natural causes. The character loses control of their bowel movements and needs to be changed a dozen or more times per day. If they have solar, this will be a huge drain on their power and could cause a black out. If they have no electricity, the laundry will need done every day, and will take huge chunks of time and energy. This is not sustainable long term. 

Unlikely to go wrong: Your character sets out to live off the grid but didn’t calculate the cost first. They get half way through building their off the grid dream home when they run out of money, and have to wait until they save the money for each next stage. This could stretch into years. 

Unlikely to go wrong: Your character chooses to walk to a stream to gather water every day. One day, a storm comes up, and they decide to place the water bucket outside to gather water. However, the storm blows the bucket away and now they do not have a water bucket. 

Improbable but still technically in the realm of possibilities: Your character is converting a modern home into a solar-powered home by rewiring it. However, they made a mistake in the wiring, and this caused an electrical fire that burns the home down. 

Improbable but still technically in the realm of possibilities: Your character lives off the grid in the wilderness in modern times. When their child is hurt, or very ill, they have to carry them hundreds of miles to the nearest doctor for help. 

Thanks for listening! Until next time, happy wordsmithing.