A Reflection on Slow Burns

Writers often hear readers say: “I love a good slow burn.” But like many aspiring authors or readers wanting the authentic slow burn experience, I am stuck in the conundrum of figuring out the question: what makes a slow burn work? Here are some of my thoughts on how to build one of these kinds of stories. Again, I'm basing off of my reading repertoire and writing experience so far, but I'm sure a lot of you have thoughts on this too, so let me know :) Anyway, to the list:

1. Build Anticipation in Small Doses

This can be called perhaps "breadcrumbing," but I mean it in a good way in romance novels. Every glance, near-touch, or biting remark should feed the reader’s craving for “more.” Also, it personally drives me crazy when it's "instalove" or "instalust" most of the time. What I mean by this is constant descriptions of how hot the love interest is. We've all seen it, I'm sure — talking about his great body or her hot curves. It works sometimes, but often times, the reasons we as readers are drawn to slow burns is because we're really drawn to visible changes in relationship structure that we can follow step by step. If you start off with the dynamic of "I'm aware I'm lusting after him," that is often a pretty boring, static setup that doesn't lend to much change. I personally love a progression that looks like this: they start off with lots of little moments, stealing glances without even realizing it, being drawn each other without explicitly being able to name their reason for attraction to each other, and then gradually, as they spend time together, the protagonists realize through one of these "breadcrumb" moments that they find each other attractive.

2. Provide Structure to Breadcrumb Moments

Also ensure you do not treat these moments like filler. What would I do to ensure this (and disclaimer that the works on Spice and Roses so far don't have this, but check out my AO3 and wait for some future fantasy works)? Generally, I follow Gwen Hayes's Romancing the Beat, but I use it as if it is the "B-Plot" for those familiar with the Save the Cat! plot beat outline. You can also use any kind of narrative arc tool to understand how to structure this. And generally, of course, don’t dump all the chemistry in one scene. Instead, pace out micro-escalations. Some examples:

• Start with eye contact that lasts a second too long.
• At the midpoint, a protective gesture at the right moment.
• Towards the end, a confession blurted out in anger.

Each beat should raise the stakes slightly higher, keeping readers leaning in. Also, a common mistake with slow burns is that they are "too slow." Following a structure helps to ensure that you keep the starving beast (i.e., your readers hopefully rooting for your characters) fed until the eventual payoff.

Note that sometimes you don't want to have total closure to the romantic storyline. You may be writing a story that is more focused on plot and the romance is just a side aspect. That's also fine. In these cases, I still think it's important to carefully structure the breadcrumbing and teasing, because it allows you to integrate the relationship more organically into the story and carefully pace it without readers getting bored.

3. Layer Character Growth With Attraction

So I basically already covered this in #2, but I will just compound the point here. The best slow burns happen when the characters evolve together. Each conflict, misunderstanding, or moment of vulnerability should peel back a new layer. Attraction is also more powerful when it’s tied to discovery, in my opinion. This is why enemies to lovers slow burns are so magnetic for many readers nowadays. They are the perfect setup to convey mutual discovery of the protagonists' personalities.

Lack of character development as two separate, individual characters is often the reason why a lot of slow burns also fall short. It's generally perhaps a romance genre problem as well.

4. Payoff With Precision

The structure I alluded to in #2 will assist with this. But what I mean by this is a more specific examination of the later beats. The eventual kiss, confession, or first night together should feel like an inevitable release. If you’ve built the tension right, this moment should feel explosive. The key is to ensure the emotional groundwork has been laid so the payoff is both passionate and believable.

I have been laying abstract concepts up until now. But what about examples? I think a good example of this is Percy Jackson and the Olympians's Percy and Annabeth. I always think of this when I think of slow burns, perhaps because it was a formative series for me generally in adolescence. I also think shounen manga tends to be good at this, if it doesn't have strange gender dynamics/poor depictions of women. Unfortunately, those are rather rare, but one series I strongly recommend is Kono Oto Tomare for an example of a great slow burn enemies to lovers (stretching over 100+ chapters).

Conclusion

As a final musing from me, I think that it isn't really so much "slow burns" that people love, but narrative arcs that are well-rounded and focused on exhibiting characters' growth trajectories complementing one other. Slow burns means that a story has a greater chance to develop a strong payoff. That is why they're often so alluring to readers.

But, I will say that there seems to be pushback against slow burns as of late. But again, I think this pushback isn't so much about the notion of slow burn itself so much as it is about failure of narrative arcs to get to a satisfying, well-earned conclusion.

And I want to write a disclaimer: The Art of Curating Romance is not a slow burn (in its Spice and Roses form, at least ;)). I've written plenty of fanfiction that could be classified as slow burn. But am I the master of slow burn? Absolutely not! However, if you are, then I'd love to hear from you :). Let me know your thoughts via Insta DM (@spice.and.roses) or by emailing me at loekemmings@gmail.com. Thank you again for reading, and see you next time on Spice and Roses!