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Slow Burn or Slow Build is a popular fanfic trope. The term refers to fics where the characters of the main pairing start off not being together, and the relationship develops slowly.
Slow Burn -- refers to stories featuring characters who gradually and naturally fall in love or lust before beginning a romantic or sexual relationship. As the emphasis is on the slow evolution of the relationship rather than a quick conflagration into sudden resolution, such stories may contain a lot of
UST and
pining until the smoldering passion eventually catches fire.
[1]
For me, it’s a fic in which the romance arc is slow and complicated, with eventual pay off often at the climax (no pun intended) of the story.
[2]
It's common for fans of slow burn fic to complain about the term's misuse. A popular tumblr post by anhumanslovestories explains:
[OP by andhumanslovedstories]
If your fic is 1000 words long, you can’t tag it slow burn. It’s not slow burn. That is a matchstick. And this is my personal bias here but if those motherfuckers you’re writing experience significant forward momentum in their relationship in under 5k words, then that is just a regular old burn. Slow burn should be borderline intolerable and a mistake to start reading at 2 in the morning.
[andhumanslovedstories reblogging their own post to add to it]
If the fic doesn’t have multiple scenes where two people almost kiss but then don’t because of a contrived interruption that they are both grateful for and angry about, until the desperate reader is forced every other paragraph to mutter, “this is fucking ridiculous, this is bullshit, I’m so fucking mad, please update sooooooooooon,” then it isn’t a slow burn. It is a romance and that is a lovely thing but. Slow burns should feel like being set on fire unto your death but the tinder is people not kissing and the spark is people who don’t admit they love each other and the whole thing is. You know. Slow.
[internationalspacehobo replying to andhumanslovestories]
that sounds agonizing
[andhumanslovestories reblogging with a screencap of internalspacehobo's reply]
CORRECT
[throughshadow-to-the-edgeofnight reblogging andhumanslovedstories]
I once read a slow burn where the main pairing didn’t even speak to each other ontil 80k words in
[andhumanslovedstories reblogging throughshadow-to-the-edgeofnight]
This is the funniest fucking thing I’ve ever read and the only true slow burn fic[3]
Fanwork Examples
The Salvation Series by spiritualmachinesFandom: HansonDate: 2013-12-05–OngoingLength: 298,191 wordsStatus: WIP
A series of fanfics; the first fic takes nearly 50 chapters for the main pairing to consummate their relationship, with their slow progression toward that being a primary plot point.
Angel's Wild by LimonadeGaby and riseofthefallenoneFandom: SupernaturalDate: 2013-04-27–2014-05-04Length: 389,000 wordsStatus: CompleteGenre: Enemies to Lovers, Wingfic
A epic in which
Castiel and
Dean start off as enemies, and slowly transition to best friends and then to lovers over the course of 52 chapters.
When the Moon Fell in Love with the Sun by MejhirenFandom: Hunger GamesDate: Aug 18, 2012–Dec 25, 2016Length: 360kStatus: Incomplete, very slow updatesGenre: Drama/Romance
Peeta Mellark, winner of the 74th Hunger Games, returns from his Victory Tour to make the starving Everdeens an offer they can't refuse.
Canon divergent, based on the fairy tale "East of the Sun and West of the Moon."
Little Hunger Games knowledge is required to enjoy this, as it's an
AU. Peeta hires
Katniss to be his huntress, saving her family, and then most of the plot is focused on them falling in love. 360k in and Katniss has only just admitted to herself how much she loves him, much less to him. SLOWEST of slow burns."
Cursed by lossehelinFandom: Rurouni KenshinDate: July 3, 2011–Mar 2, 2013Length: 317kStatus: CompleteGenre: Romance, Fantasy
A distinctly japanese twist on the
Beauty and the Beast tale. AU enough that not much Rurouni Kenshin knowledge is needed. A thousand years ago, the Emperor and his entire court were cursed to be beasts the deadline of the curse draws near as Kaoru's father promises her to the beastly emperor when she is a child. He comes to collect, when she is of age. She is made Lady of the castle, though it will be a long while before they fall in love yet.
The Girl From Whirlpool by SilverShineFandom: NarutoDate: Jan 6, 2010–Mar 18, 2011Length: 248kStatus: Incomplete, but at a decent stopping pointGenre: Romance, Action
When Naruto's
father met his
mother, his only impression was that a village out there must have been missing its idiot.
Minato/Kushina
A great fic with lots of
world building of the
pre-canon era, and lots of wonderful development of the relationship between Kushina and Minato, and their histories. It takes Minato a good way through the fic to realize he loves Kushina, but she's dating someone else by then. It's only in the last scene of the last chapter that they sort themselves out enough to properly start dating.
hot oil spit by faorismFandom: OverwatchDate: Jan 2017Length: 34,079Status: WIPGenre: McCree/Hanzo, soulmarks
34k in, McCree hasn't met Hanzo yet and likely won't for another 34k based on where the fic is in canon's timeline.
Skin by Usagi SquaredFandom: Yu-Gi-OhDate: Sep 2010–Apr 2014Length: 1,808,934Status: WIPGenre: Jounouchi Katsuya/Kaiba Seto, always a different gender
"
Jonouchi Katsuya will always look out for his friends, no matter how weird things get. That means he will keep on fighting, whether facing maniacs with freaky powers, monsters from a children's game, or the fact
Kaiba's a girl. Wait, what? Warnings inside"
It takes until
chapter 99 (out of 121) for feelings to actually be admitted.
References
- ↑ Burn Moonbeam's Fanfiction Terminology
- ↑ Tumblr post by B, July 1 2016
- ↑ tumblr thread by andhumanslovestories, posted 23 September 2018. (archived)
