Not a bad suggestion, Lynn, just please keep in mind that it will depend mostly on whether there are enough stories with a central a-plot to support splitting the category.
One of the reasons that we tweaked the definition of Drama in the first place (last year) was that there seem to be fewer and fewer stories where the a-plot (the chasing the bad guys thing) is the main driving force of the story. Thus, we chose to open the category up slightly to include the types of stories you describe -- where there is a serious, suspenseful situation, but the threat may not always be from an outside source.
I think most of us lament the fact that fewer people attempt a fully fleshed out a-plot -- I know those of us on the KCom certainly do. And we also would all personally love to reward those writers who take on this difficult task and produce an outstanding story. What it comes down to then, really, is whether the Kerths should be a "leader" or a "follower".
On the KCom, we've always taken the viewpoint that the only "charge" the Kerths have is to represent the stories that have been released in the previous year. That's one reason we sometimes have to make changes to categories kind of late in the game (like we did this year). We have to wait until near the end of each calendar year to figure out what kinds of stories have been released, in what numbers, and determine what themes have been the most prevelent.
Others have suggested over the years, however, that the Kerths should be more proactive -- that the KCom should take on the responsibility of encouraging certain types of stories. For example, goes the thinking, if the Kerths were to include categories where there are fewer eligible stories, more people would attempt to write stories to fit in those categories, in hopes of having a better shot at an award.
Those of us on the committee see advantages to this approach, to be certain, but we ultimately think that it would be presumptuous of us, as a committee, to tell the fandom what kinds of stories are "preferable". Instead, we just try our best to keep an eye on trends that are created by the fandom in general, and let the readers and writers decide which stories (or types of stories) are the most popular.
Kathy
