In gliders, you usually have several minutes to pick out a field. A number of times I have spent a good part of an hour or more hanging by my fingernails near a chosen field until I either got away or had to use it.
Wave sites can be different and once on my way back in serious sink in an L-33 low performance glider (3rd flight in type), I was checking out various crops very shortly before finding that the best field was where I needed to land. That day the towplane managed two more miles than I did from release
In power, you are coming down at 800'/min; so don't look too far if flying a couple thousand feet up. Frankly if the weather is keeping me that low, I start playing hopscotch from one decent looking field to the next and will go off track to keep good fields within reach.
As BPF has wisely noted a successful forced landing is one where you and the passengers walk away.
Make a GOOD approach to the field that you are absolutely sure you can make halfway down. A touchdown well into the field will do a lot to avoid wires.
If you see a power line, i.e. poles, at the boundary, aim for well above a pole and plan to add flaps and/or sideslip once over.
Assume there is a pole line around the field boundaries and along any roads or driveways -- and then look for any pole lines running across the field as there was in my first outlanding.
My outlanding checklist is SSSLOW
Surface
Slope
Stock
Length
Obstacles
Wind
A deeper problem is that so many pilots are enamored of a 2-mile final on a glideslope similar to an ILS. Get used to power off approaches so you are familiar with where you will contact terra firma.