When writing slow burners...

[MakBow]

Do you ever feel like you just want to get to the next point in the story, but you HAVE to take things slow unless you risk ruining the pacing, especially when you're trying to write a slow burner?

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

Do you ever feel like you just want to get to the next point in the story, but you HAVE to take things slow unless you risk ruining the pacing, especially when you're trying to write a slow burner?

A lot of times, yes. But slow burner chapters are like the 'necessary evil' of technical aspects of writing.

A good story needs a proper 'priming' before exploding into the exciting parts.

Edit: Did I type the second line right, or does it sound bad...like sleazy type of 'bad'?

 

[Rachel_Leia_Cole]

I usually write from one point to the next, then go back and expand to slow it down if needed. I was really bad about having this BIG THING happen then this other BIG THING happen. I’ve gotten a lot better at letting the story breathe between scenes. But it took some practice.

 

[Wamba2K]

I feel entirely the opposite. I could write endless fluff and stall for like a dozen chapters if I let myself. I'm usually dreading the important stuff.

 

[Juia_Darkcrest]

Do you ever feel like you just want to get to the next point in the story, but you HAVE to take things slow unless you risk ruining the pacing, especially when you're trying to write a slow burner?

all the damn time... was how I 'ruined' my first webnovel MFGR (IMO, others liked it but I can do better!) by not slowing it down.

Another point about slowing down your pacing is it lets you find and fill plot holes that you may miss in a rapidly paced story... as long as you read what your writing anyways LMAO

 

[Paul__Michaels]

Sure

 

[CinnaSloth]

i'm currently rising to the climax ending fight of the story to.. well, end the story. but OMFG it's taking foreeeeeeeeeeever!!! I have been telling myself it's almost at the end FOR WEEKS, but characters need to talk, people need to move, and walk, and sort out feelings and fluff this and fluff that. and I'm like uuuuuuuuuuugh.... the fight is right theeeeeeeere. the finish like it RIGHT THERE!!!! but i can't just throw them into mortal kombat and wam bam thank you ma'am, big finishing climax, happily ever after... it's like 1 scene that's lasting 20 chapters.

"YOU CAN'T JUST ABRUPT END A STORY!!"

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I have a tendency to get stuck in one mode for a long time then realize I need to either speed it up, slow it down, or just pray for the perfect storm of situations that J. K. Rowling (who definitely has this same problem) rode to success...

 

[Joyager2]

All the time. The big parts are the exciting ones. But there's a lot of joy and love to be found in the little moments with your characters. If you try your best to view the moments as days in their own right and not stepping stones to something greater (which takes time and a little bit of extra focus), it gets easier. Suddenly, they're all big moments.

 

[Emotica]

I think every part of your slow-burn has to mean something. Each point should be exciting to get to on it's own. The difficult part is setting up later plot points. This is especially hard when it comes to character relationships and making them feel real. Unfortunately, I don't have much advice for character relationships without plot-driven forces. Typically I'd just let a relationship naturally evolve parallel to the plot, but if the entire purpose of your story was the relationship itself, I think that's why it's so hard to write a romance novel that isn't cheesy or smutty. It's certainly possible, but it's no easy task.

If character relationships or development are what you're trying to pace, then even reactionary characters should easily thrive as the plot develops. If it's the plot itself that you're worried about pacing correctly, then I'd say that each plot element should be exciting on it's own. Every chapter should exist for a reason, even if it's trivial compared to chapters that reach a climax of some sort. In that case, outlining is your best friend. If you outline by chapter, it should be easy enough to adjust as you go, and it should read as three acts.

I did say 3 acts, but of course you could structure it any way you want, it should just be a clear beginning middle and end, even if you have multiple, or it doesn't have a traditional ending. The red flag would be if your outline is 49% Act 1, 49% Act 3. Maybe that means you're not identifying your own narrative arcs accurately, or maybe it means you created narrative whiplash. Ultimately, there isn't necessarily a right or wrong.

Harry Potter comes to mind. Sure, things happen throughout the books, but typically Act 1 begins with excitement and focuses on vibes, Act 2 usually is mostly setting up Act 3 while focusing on a B-Plot like a quidditch tournament or something, and Act 3 are all the pieces coming together for a climax. It sounds like a typical 3 act structure, and it is, but the amount of time spent on comparatively nothing happening for the first half of the books stands out to the expected climax at the end of every book. I'm bringing it up, because fans don't care. They like seeing Harry and friends go to class, go into town, play quidditch, poke their noses where they don't belong, take tests, bicker and argue. That's not to say that it's everyone's cup of tea, but that good pacing doesn't necessarily require action or even high stakes at every point. It just needs to matter to the reader.

For my main story, I maintain a calendar of events alongside my outline. The calendar is flexible enough to be updated as necessary, and exists for in-universe continuity as well as pacing. The outline started with the most essential events. Then I added in the events that need to happen between those events for it to make sense. Then as I write, sometimes I'll either have a new idea, or realize I didn't leave enough space for certain events. For instance, if a chapter exists because Character A needs to meet Character B for Event C to make sense, but then I realize I only left room for them to interact once, then it's easy to shift everything for a new chapter if necessary. It would follow the rule of chapters existing for a reason. One of my least favorite elements of a story is narrative teleportation. At least in my work, that's something that pacing needs to be planned around. It'd be wasteful to have a chapter just about going to another location, though you could always describe the shifting setting for an entire chapter if you want to, I guess. Instead, that could be a chapter with low-stakes that focuses on character development, something that will naturally pay off later as opposed to forcing it in as needed.

One last analogy, the manga/anime Naruto fumbled the hardest with pacing due to editor pressure. You essentially see them go on one mission, take a promotion exam, and then a blood feud between spiritual brothers. Naruto's great, but in an effort to always up the stakes and progress the plot, they missed out on the character and plot development that could've made future threads even more intense.

 

[MFontana]

Do you ever feel like you just want to get to the next point in the story, but you HAVE to take things slow unless you risk ruining the pacing, especially when you're trying to write a slow burner?

If I'm being honest, No. I don't.
When I'm writing I take my time because slow-burn is what I tend to write in.
That's not to say writing slow-burn is easy, it's just my "default" because it's also the kind of fiction that I like to read.

That said, I'll also draft up whatever content I want to write for a story at the moment whenever I'm writing and will fit it in when the story reaches that point.

For example, for Aestelle Nocte, I already have a number of scenes drafted up for much later in the story even though the story itself is only primed to release chapter 3 this month.

Beyond that, I also have one of the four possible endings for The Elarian Chronicles Volume 5 drafted, as well as the climactic battle against the story's "BBEG" or "Main Antagonist" along with the first ten chapters and all the interludes for Volume 1, and the Proof of Concept for Volume 2. (Whatever you'd like to call him/her/it).

In essence, if I'm eager, or inspired, to write something, I just do, and will fit it into the relevant story when it reaches that point.

 

[DoodTheMan]

I tend to have the opposite issue, where I'm more worried that if I'm rushing and going too fast. Only after the fact do people tell me that my story is a slow burn and I reply with "oh, it is?" So I think I end up accidentally counter-balancing in the other direction. It makes me wonder if I would have trouble writing a fast-paced story.

 

[Empire145]

Well, when I have a clear blueprint for the story, I feel like I can finish writing it quickly, but the actual execution is much slower than I expect. Although this can be frustrating at times, having a clear goal allows me to refine the details of the story more meticulously, and I don't have to worry about running out of inspiration.

 

[Cookiez_N_Potionz]

Yeah, idk.
Slowburns are little romantic moments between characters. I might do that in my new LitRPG

 

[writerwolf359]

I have the opposite problem: I have to consciously put subplots on pause so I can keep the main plot moving.

 

[Dawnathon]

Do you ever feel like you just want to get to the next point in the story, but you HAVE to take things slow unless you risk ruining the pacing, especially when you're trying to write a slow burner?

That sounds like what would happen if you force a story to be a slow burn. My current story on SH took twelve chapters before the protag even had a name, but I like to think none of the time up til then was wasted. Just more condensed, to put it politely.

I think the appeal of slow burns is that the tense moments are enough that you enjoy the fluff just getting to see the characters take a breather and not always be on a knife's edge. I don't think you could do a good slow burn without having a serious focus in characters to connect with. Unless you're like the original Hunchback of Notre Dame and half the novel is dedicated to writing out architecture plans. I don't think you could get away with a novel's focus like that nowadays.