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Survival Guide Ideas

Survival guides can cover a broad range of topics, from serious and practical to humorous and lighthearted, or anywhere in between. Complicated or stressful situations such as graduate school, new parenthood or moving to a new country are especially popular topics for survival guides. But you can create a survival guide about almost any topic, as long as you can offer your readers a mix of useful tips, personal insight and concrete advice.
  1. Transition Survival Guides

    • Major life changes can make one feel lonely, confused and stressed, so survival guides about these transitions are especially useful. The hints should be practical and reassuring for the reader. According to the College Freshman website, for instance, a freshman survival guide could include tips on finances, what to pack or how to make new friends. After graduation, according to Your Life Works, survival tips for starting a new job can include wardrobe hints, office politics or time management skills. Other survival guide ideas include graduate school, wedding planning, new parenthood or buying a first home.

    Practical Survival Guides

    • Some survival guides can focus on more extreme wilderness situations.

      Survival guides can also refer to more practical, hands-on survival tactics. For instance, according to the Wilderness Manuals website, a wilderness survival guide could include the following tips: basic first aid instructions, building shelters, how to navigate with a map or how to survive cold weather. Other practical survival guides might focus on rock climbing, backpacking, camping or even natural disasters. Non-outdoor survival guides could even focus on managing in an economic downturn or dealing with a stressful personal event such as a divorce or a medical diagnosis.

    Other Survival Guides

    • Survival guides can also cover specific skills that people are interested in learning, usually skills that can be stressful or difficult to learn. For example, Cardiff University Information Services offers a survival guide for essay writing, including tips on how to find research and format a bibliography. Other possible survival guide topics include starting a business, learning new technologies or taking control of personal finances. Survival guides can even be more personal, such as dealing with breakups or entering the dating world. Writing a successful survival guide depends on your level of research and knowledge, as well as your ability to offer strong and intelligent advice.

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