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How To Fucking Write: a guide by fairyhaos
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SLOW BURNS
hi gays and gals! "how to fucking write" is back, with yet more advice and tips for everyone ^^ please feel free to send me an ask if there's something you want me to talk about or if you want to be added to the taglist! and as always, please reblog if you find this helpful :)
# - HOW TO SLOW BURN.
.. bullet point one : word count .
putting this here because i have one thing to say about this.
word count doesn't matter.
you don't have to have over 50k words or some shit in order to write a really, really good slow burn. similarly, you can't just the quality of a slow burn—or a story in general—by its word count.
yes, maybe stories with higher word counts tend to be better slow burns, but that's not because of the word count. it's because of what they do with the words.
so if you've finished writing your story and you're happy with it and it doesn't feel rushed, doesn't feel too slow, and it doesn't mess up the relationship development, that's it. don't try to add words just because it's not "long enough".
word count doesn't matter.
(that being said though, there have to be enough words for it to actually be a slow burn, but. that's a given.)
.. bullet point two : plan .
now i know that there are people who don't like planning, or their writing style means that they feel more comfortable with just winging it and throwing words at the paper.
however, for a really good, well-paced slow burn, it's really really important for you to create a plan.
it doesn't have to include everything! it doesn't need to be an exhaustive breakdown of all the scenes you're going to put into the story, but you need to know vaguely what's going to happen, and how you want your characters to act.
because slow burn is a leadup to a relationship, right? it's about relationship building. their relationship is a castle, and you need to know what your castle is gonna look like before you start haphazardly slapping bricks on top of each other.
plan the milestones you want their relationship to reach. think about what scenes you want to use that will signpost the gradual change in their relationship (more on signposts down below).
think about how you want the slow burn to reach its climax, and also when.
what will that climax be? will it be the realisation of feelings? will it be the confession? maybe a rejection of confession?
all of that can be figured out when you plan. having the climax in mind and having the ending in mind are things i will always advocate for when it comes to writing.
especially with slow burns. because it's all about that heart-wrenching climax, isn't it? when someone blurts out their emotions, and there are tears and shaky whispers and it makes you want to scream because feels.
planning helps with coherency, too. helps everything flow more naturally and make the slow burn overall feel more well thought-out and more impactful.
plus, i dunno about you guys but planning out how shit's gonna go down and cackling over how you're going to make your readers cry with every single almost confession scene and every single mutual pining part is just the most incredible thing in the world.
.. bullet point three : signposts
i mentioned this above, but having signpost scenes that you and your readers can use to identify milestones in the characters' relationship is very, very important.
for example, a very simple set of milestones would be:
the scene wherein X falls for Y
a scene wherein X almost spills their feelings to Y
the situation wherein Y suddenly realises their own feelings for X
a scene where they feel like they're about to lose each other
something that makes someone confess
it's horribly simple, and very vague, but these are the basic milestones that most slow burns will use to influence their characters' relationships.
but nevertheless, do you see how each of these scenes are important?
how all of them help the relationship progress? build up the slow burn, until it finally reaches its peak?
of course, the story would probably include more than just these scenes. if it's a good story, then of course it will.
but these are the most important, and recognising what your important scenes are, and making sure that you know how many you're putting in and in what way they influence the plot is very key to writing slow burns.
.. bullet point four : motive
this is perhaps not a very necessary bullet point, but if you wanna go all-in with your slow burn and make it knock-out spectacular, then i suggest that you think on this bullet point for a while.
why aren't your characters together right now?
---is the question you should be asking yourself to make it a really stellar slow burn.
why can't your characters confess? why can't they realise their feelings? what is stopping them from simply going from being friends to realising they're in love and then confessing?
your characters need a motive.
often, that motive is really simple. there's a whole bunch that are commonly used but, if you do it well, then it'll be as hard-hitting as if it's something no one could have ever predicted.
are they not together because they...
...used to be enemies? have been friends for too long? don't know whether they're really in love or if it's just a fluke?
maybe they don't believe in love. maybe they're loving someone who they think will never love them back. maybe they don't even realise they're in love.
the beauty of it all is that you get to choose. you get to pick your own dilemmas for your characters, and write about their messy path to realisation, through their slow burn, while untangling all their emotions throughout their journey.
slow burn is about feelings, after all. make those feelings complex. truly think in your character's thoughts, just for a moment, and think about how it would feel to be in that situation. think about how they'd react. what they'd do.
and also what's holding them back.
motives make everything even more deliciously painful. you can truly sympathise with the characters' relationship progression then, and can really get readers invested as they try to see how the characters overcome their struggles.
besides. don't we all love when X shouldn't love Y but they're going to love them anyway?
... and that's it ! if anyone has anything else they want advice on (how to structure, how to write dialogue, how to plan etc) then just shoot me an ask, because i'd love to help however i can :)
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