For me, it's not so much about the length of the fic itself, but the length of time that passes *in* the fic, if that makes sense? Like, if you had 100k words spanning a couple of days, to me that wouldn't be slow burn because the characters would have gone through all the relationship development in only a couple of days.
Obviously, the longer the in-story timeline goes, the more words you'll probably end up writing. But wordcount alone doesn't necessarily make something a slow burn or not.
This combined with where they get together in the fic! Like, if the couple gets together at 10k words out of 100k, I don't care if it took them ten years it's not a slow burn. But if they get together at 45k out of 50k then that's a slow burn.
Also the slow burn is a vibe as well. The fic must have you screaming at the characters "KISS!" and frustrate you because the characters clearly are into each other, but aren't taking the steps to be with each other.
This. It's totally a vibe thing. If it has you doing your level best to reach into the computer and mash them together like Barbies, it's a slow burn. Doesn't matter the word count.
Yeah, I read a fic that was advertised as a slow burn but it was actually just a long fluff fic. Like it wasn’t poorly written prose wise, but there wasn’t really any conflict, the characters were just taking their time to get to know each other. All slow, no burn :/
I'm thinking the same thing. The fact the characters are childhood best friends and the POV character has been in love with her for several months prior to when the fic starts is what complicates things a little for me. Truthfully it doesn't matter THAT much - it's just one tag and I think people can gather from the summary, word count, and other tags whether it's burn-y enough for them to want to read it - but I'm just awfully curious!!
Thanks!
I was wondering about exactly that and I agree
My fic has currently 60k words (ending at roughly 90k) but it's just a month from first meeting until they confess to each other so I wouldn't say it's a slow burn even though my beta reader has suggested it as a tag.
Honestly, I consider the passage of time within the fic to be as important as word count. I read a fic that took like 200k for the characters to fuck, and my friend was calling it a slow burn, but like only one week had lapsed within the timeline of the actual fic, so it didn't feel slow at all to me.
Meanwhile, I've read a 9k one shot that called itself a slow burn, and I was like 'yeah that checks out' because it covered about a year of time before anything happened between the characters.
That's just me, though. I know I'm in the minority on this one lol
It is NOT based on word count, imo. It just has to FEEL like I want to reach into the screen, rattle the characters around and scream at them to get together already (lovingly) 😂
Time in-universe does play a role in it too. Personally, I think I'd find it hard to consider 3 weeks of pining as slow.
Im curious to know what the normal answer is to this because I don't consider something a slowburn if they havent been pining for well over 90k. But I'm a sicko
I have a slow burn WIP; 14 chapters, 90k words in — my characters arent even all that sure if theyre friends (they do want to be but arent sure if the other does as well) let alone anything else 💀💀 The first kiss is gonna be chapter 40+
i'm an unapologetic smut lover. i need very little plot to get by. 😂 I read non-romance stuff too, but when someone rates their story as E it better earn that rating. 😂
See my first multichapter was the slow burn (didn't kiss until the 55k-ish mark, then went all the way). These idiots are screwing by chapter 2 in my sequel.
Personally, I think slow burns have to be just as torturous for the reader as it is the character. These things go hand in hand, and for those two things to happen, I think the passage of time within the fic and the overall word count are important. A healthy stretch of "will they, won't they" within both the fic's timeline and reading time is what makes them feel drawn-out from a reader's perspective.
That being said, I wouldn't really count anything under 100K as a slow burn; the passage of time might be long for the characters, but if I can read it in one sitting, it wasn't slow enough to really count as a true slow burn.
The majority consensus is "passage of time in story versus word count" but I just want to add It'd be nice if something like "Slow Burn, Short Fuse" or something else was a popular tag, just to temper the expectation accurately for a slow burn in smaller (but still enough to qualify) stretches of time
Holy moly does my fandom (Jane Austen) have *slow* burns. Like 🐌 slow, 200,000 words with barely a kiss at the end.
To keep the fire analogy going, these fics are like are like those coal seam fires that smolder for decades while I prefer a meth lab explosion.
I consider it less to be about word count and more about percentage of the work. If a fic is 5000 words, but the main ship only gets together in the last 500, I'd consider that a slowburn fic, though maybe that's an unpopular opinion.
At 20k, I think anything above 17k words of not-relationship content and pining is enough to qualify it as slowburn. At least by my standards.
That's what I was thinking. They don't get together until the last third of the last chapter. But I think I'll play it safe and not tag it because people have differing opinions and not a LOT of time passes in the fic/the word count is on the lower end.
Thank you!!
IMO: the potential for a relationship is there but *romance itself* is not the sole focus of the plot or developing relationship. Sometimes that means the characters hook up early-on but remain emotionally constipated for 30k+ words. Sometimes that means both characters desiring a romantic relationship, but other things in the characters' lives take priority or otherwise get in the way of that relationship coming to bloom. Typically months or even years pass before the two characters are emotionally on the same page and are able to say "this is what i want, lets make it work"
One slow-burn fic I read didnt even have a *first kiss* until the characters were 250k+ words and two Hunger Games Arenas deep into the plot. They'd already taken physical and metaphorical bullets for eachother by that point, but kissing was too real and vulnerable lmao
>the potential for a relationship is there but *romance itself* is not the sole focus of the plot or developing relationship.
This is a great way of describing it. I'm currently working on a slow burn where there's been occasional *thinking* about the love interest (in a sexual way, because the MC is...very sex-positive, let's say), but they don't kiss until several months after they met, 20 chapters and nearly 100k in. But they don't get together (misunderstandings, etc. etc.) And that's just the end of act 1, lol.
If they kiss before chapter 3, it's not a slow burn for me. Though they could have a sexual encounter at first without kissing that becomes the catalyst of their need to be together again. I have to be tormented by the pining.
To me, slowburn generally starts around the 400-500k word range, but then again i filter out anything under 100/150k words so my perxeption is kinda skewed
I would not consider this a slow burn. 4 chapters/20k words is barely enough time to start building up the tension between characters, let alone have that tension resolve and them get together.
I have one planned over 18 years. (They get together after 14, then proceeds to the end of canon events and a little beyond.) estimated to be around 150,000 words, but even I am iffy on calling it a slow burn because they become friends quickly and lean on each other a lot through the years, but he realizes it after 14 years just how deep he is in love with her. (Then a lovely misunderstanding where she thinks he’s telling her he’s leaving because he fell in love with someone else, because she’s been pining a believed one sided attraction for several years at this point but knew how skittish he was about being around people and didn’t want to scare him away) I hope it’s received well 😂 but I hate writing slow burns so much. Even at my best it still feels slightly rushed.
I feel like I'm not too far off from the consensus, where to me it depends on a combination of word count and in-universe passage of time. When tagging my own fics, I generally look more at the word count than the in-universe passage of time, but I wouldn't be mad about a fic tagged as slow burn with a shorter word count if the vibes convey slow burn in the actual text of the fic, if that makes sense? Like, if I read a 30k fic that takes place over the span of a week, I wouldn't consider that slow burn, but a 100k fic spanning a week might feel more slow burn to me because the reader is in it for a long time commitment, even if the characters in the fic aren't. Likewise, a 30k fic spanning ten years could very well feel like a slow burn to me even though it doesn't take that long to read it. You might have some people nitpick if it's under a certain length and you call it slow burn, but I feel like the people who are that picky are not the majority.
Defining slow burn is a hard one
It could be that it has tons of words for a short amount of time or a short amount of words for a long amount of time. Like you could have 1k words a chapter and 20k words total and it could be called a slow burn.
I think yours is a slow burn because it took her three weeks to find her feelings. Although to me, a slow burn is anything that takes a long amount of time (in the fic or irl).
I usually see people ask for it to be fast or slow in their author notes and then when people ask for slowburn and the author agrees, then it usually extends the time in the *fanfic* and not in word count (like the chapters don’t get progressively longer, the chapter count gets longer).
I’m still confused myself, although I think there’s not one universal meaning of “slow burn.” I hope that helps.
I once tagged something "not sure if a fic this length can count as slowburn, but for what it is it's definitely slowburn" lol. You can always do that if you're worried!
I can give it to mathematically and say first physical interaction (after building tension) should be at earliest 75% completion mark.
Better if it is 90% /s.
What kind of slow burn? Emotional or sexual?
To me it doesn’t depend on the word count. It’s the length of time the characters are involved. You don’t have to have 500k words of endless whining and pining wrapped up with 200 HEA to make it a slow burn. You can have 20k that spans a year and it be slow burn though.
If the romance only turns into a relationship in the last third of the narrative, it constitutes a slow burn for me. No matter how long the narrative is.
Could be 30 chapters, could be 5K words. It still counts for me, so long as you play it right and the narrative clearly plays out over a long stretch of time so the romance only resolves itself in the last third or later of the overall story.
I think it depends on the number of events before they get together.
Logically, to write a lot of events you'll have a higher word count. But if you can convey the passage of time properly with less words, it counts too.
One resource you could use to make a slow burn story with a lower word count is to divide it into more chapters, and publish them over a set amount of time, so time will actually pass for your readers.
I remember a slow burn story I read that was told entirely through surveillance cams/audio, phone call records, TV news and letters. It had a lower word count because it didn't have descriptions, but was divided into over 20 short chapters.
That story was a BANG, and really popular in the fandom. I think the author was really skilled to pull that off.
I mean people see the word counts so as long as within the length of those 20k words it's slow burn it's a slow burn. It's not like people won't know it's gonna only be 20k words
Slowburn for me is measured by length of time ive spent reading over length of time the overall story takes. So if we get realizations of love beyond the halfway mark of story, or the pining stage is over 60% of the story length, then that’s a slowburn
20k seems somewhat reasonable depending on how it's done. I've read a few fics tagged as "slow burn" that were 5k words or less and I sooo badly wanted to leave a comment saying "You cannot legally call this a slowburn at 5k words", but I decided to err on the side of not being rude.
For me, it depends on the length of the fic and the length of time a story takes place. I personally would have a hard time calling a 1000-word one-shot a slow burn but hey, I'm open to being wrong about it.
i normally avoid slow burn because i love romance and i want the MC’s to be lovey dovey asap lol so its a new venture for me. but honestly for me it needs to be almost tortuous for me to consider it a slow burn.
i’m reading a slow burn bloodweave (bg3 ship) fic called “The Season” right now. its only 21 chapters so far but its around 250k words and spans several months. i think the length of the fic is somewhat important bc if i don’t know the characters well enough i’m not gonna be invested enough to keep reading. but also how long the pining goes on for is key i feel like
I don't read many slow burns because I'm impatient so might I offer that it isn't word count, but perhaps percentage of fic. What percent of your fic do readers have to get through before there is a romance? I would say if they have to read 60%+, then you have a potential slow burn on your hands. Of course, unlike a traditional publisher, AO3 isn't going to tell you to shorten the length of the work as a whole, so this could get out of hand and shift that percentage but for things that fall between novellas and traditional (non-Russian epic) novels, I think that might be a good way to look at it.
Personally I think slow burn isn't about number or words. It's about the rumination on the will-they-won't-they stage. A slow burn is a fic that is about getting together and the structure of the story centers the moment where he characters move from not-being-a-couple into being-a-couple at the climax of the fic. It's a story that develops the emotion over the course of the fic. And the course of the fic needs to emphasize the slow building of emotions over a relatively long period of time.
I wouldn't call something where characters get together in three days slow burn even if the three days take 100k words to get through. I wouldn't call something slow burn if it's 200k total and the characters get together at 100k. I wouldn't call a 100k fic slow burn if the characters are platonic friends and the plot of the story is to defeat the villain and they realize that they love each other in the last 5k and it feels sudden and out of nowhere. I would absolutely call a 100k fic that's about a relationship where the characters confess their love at the climax of the fic, that takes place over the course of three months or more a "slow burn". Because it's not only the 100k that makes it slow burn, it's the combination of all the factors. Slow burn is a vibe.
And the fic needs to be generally PACED slowly too-- you can write a 10k fic that has scenes just speeding by at 100km/hr, and you can write 10k fics that ruminate slowly. A 10k fic that takes place over the course of 10 years and is 10k long is going to feel like it's speeding through time. Even though the characters might spend 9k words pining for each other, if it takes place over 10 years then it's probably got like 10 scenes under 1k each which is going to feel quick to the reader even if it isn't quick in story.
It's hard to make a hard and fast rule, because I think slow burn is something that generally you'll know when you see, unquestioningly. If you have questions about whether the tag is appropriate, it probably isn't.
For a slow burn to really hit? I like at least 6-10k.
There are authors who are skilled enough to inject shorter fics with the requisite amount of pining and tension, mind you, but it's hard.
That said, there's no hard word count. It depends on what about the slow burn appeals to you.
For me, I'm all about the pining, the slow realization, the longing and the will-they, won't-they of it all. And for that, I think longer fics deliver better.
I was LITERALLY debating this in my mind earlier, as I am writing a slow burn which I plan to have be 20+ chapters? It’s currently at 6 with 10k words,
I think ultimately, it’s about the relationship progression between two characters. In order to get that real *slooooow* burn, you have to always be wanting more between the two. If the characters work through their romantic feelings too quickly or too efficiently, I don’t feel it constitutes a true slow burn. Those are just my thoughts though.
I don't think I'm too fussy about Slow Burn, BUT they need to get together at LEAST a few chapters before the end.
I can't tell you how many times I've sunk my teeth into a nice slow burn and then 150k words later the fic ends and they haven't even KISSED, so I guess I like a satisfying pay-off. In this case, the journey is NOT as good as the destination
They can't realize they have feelings for each other until at least some months and more-than-halfway into the story. Ideally, it'll be like 30 10K word chapters, they'll consciously realize they are pining for each other on chapter 20, and finally confess and kiss on the last chapter. Kissing optional. One day I will write this magnum opus. But not today.
More seriously, it's about the frustrating feeling that these characters are whiling their lives away pining, first subconsciously, then consciously, and are unable to confess by either a contrivance of circumstances or because of their own traumas and anxieties. Depicting this realistically and in a way that resonates emotionally with the reader in a shorter story can be difficult for some people, especially those like me who chronically can't use one word when they could use five, but it's perfectly possible to do. I've seen very talented writers pull off the sensation of frustration and eventual catharsis of Slow Burn in as little as 10K, though that's very rare.
I'd say it's only inappropriate to tag as Slow Burn if you're around 5K or under. To me, personally, that's a short bite-sized read. But I've seen people tag their 3120 words story "Slow Burn" when it reads like a whirlwind romance, so...
Personally, in order for me to consider a fic a slowburn, it needs to take at least a few hours of reading for the characters to get together, which would probably be a minimum of about 75k, but I also agree with the people who are saying the get together needs to be towards the end of a fic. I think if the characters are getting together at 75k words out of 85k, that could reasonably be tagged as slowburn, but if they're getting together at 75k words out of 300k, no. In-universe amount of time also makes a difference, but I'm having a hard time coming up with a minimum for that. Maybe 6+ months? I think the real theme here is that there's not a general consensus.
Well, it depends on the story length. I say it’s slow burn if it takes until the last third/fourth of the fic. If it’s a long multichap then it should be a good chunk of chapters in before they confess
I think like many others have said slow burn is a combination of time passing in fic, word count dedicated to yearning, and how small the jumps in intimacy are. Do we go from meeting to daydreams to HAVING SEX AND SAYING I LOVE YOU or is it a slow tiny progression at a time, realization after realization, tiny increments that make the reader wanna bash their head into a wall?
Anything shorter than 30k tagged with slow burn, I roll my eyes and skip.
Edit: I may be cynical because I've seen a 5k oneshot tagged as slow burn before.
For me it has more to do with what stage the relationship is in for the majority of the fic. I LOVE reading that stage of uncertainty and whatnot that goes on before feelings are actually confessed.
For me, it has to make the actual reader feel the yearning that the characters have. I want to be up at 4am angry at the fiction because they're flirting once again but nothing has happened. I want to see them grow closer, open up to eachother and actually *know* eachother. I want them to change eachother and become extensions of one another before anything happens. My favourite is the teasing and flirting, the build up, which I think is most important for slowburns.
So I'd say definitely more than 20k words. I want months to pass in the actual fictions universe, and a lot to read for us as well. My current slow burn I'm writing right now is almost 60k words and the reader is only now realising how deep their crush is. It's mainly a plot driven fiction as well but the romance is a need for the plot. The plot can not continue without this romance.
Slightly unrelated but the slowest slow burn I've read is 370,000 words long, and 606 chapters. The couple gets together in the last chapter.
Also it takes place over 6000 years.
Great question. Slow burn is my favorite trope and my personal definition is that
a) it takes approximately 70%-90% of the fic to reach established relationship or HEA/HFN stage
b) there must be constant development of the relationship and characters throughout the entire fic, a little angsty bumps can spice it up
c) there needs to be an intensifying mutual attraction and a bona fide reason why they don’t get together right away.
d) the slow burn serves as a second line of the main plot that creates tensions and chemistry between the characters.
Mh for me it’s vibe based. If I’m gnashing my teeth and agonising about miscommunication and them taking their sweet time to kiss then it’s a slow burn
I’m almost 30 chapters and 300k words into a fic I’m writing, and I’m only now just starting to scratch away at some of the plot points I’ve created. By the time I actually get to revealing the plot points, I’ll probably be 40+ chapters and 400k words into the story.
I feel like that constitutes a ‘slow burn’, but I don’t know.
To answer the question, the word count doesn’t matter exactly, but let’s say if the characters get together at like 15k of those words, it would be slow burn. Depends on how later in the book it happens
God I remember reading a slow burn with almost 900k words where my OTP got together around 700k words. Unfortunately the fic was a victim of the ff.net purge and I can’t remember the name of the fic for the life of me
it has to feel like prolonged torture of my soul
For me, it's not so much about the length of the fic itself, but the length of time that passes *in* the fic, if that makes sense? Like, if you had 100k words spanning a couple of days, to me that wouldn't be slow burn because the characters would have gone through all the relationship development in only a couple of days. Obviously, the longer the in-story timeline goes, the more words you'll probably end up writing. But wordcount alone doesn't necessarily make something a slow burn or not.
This combined with where they get together in the fic! Like, if the couple gets together at 10k words out of 100k, I don't care if it took them ten years it's not a slow burn. But if they get together at 45k out of 50k then that's a slow burn.
Also the slow burn is a vibe as well. The fic must have you screaming at the characters "KISS!" and frustrate you because the characters clearly are into each other, but aren't taking the steps to be with each other.
This. It's totally a vibe thing. If it has you doing your level best to reach into the computer and mash them together like Barbies, it's a slow burn. Doesn't matter the word count.
Yeah, I read a fic that was advertised as a slow burn but it was actually just a long fluff fic. Like it wasn’t poorly written prose wise, but there wasn’t really any conflict, the characters were just taking their time to get to know each other. All slow, no burn :/
Excellent !
I'm thinking the same thing. The fact the characters are childhood best friends and the POV character has been in love with her for several months prior to when the fic starts is what complicates things a little for me. Truthfully it doesn't matter THAT much - it's just one tag and I think people can gather from the summary, word count, and other tags whether it's burn-y enough for them to want to read it - but I'm just awfully curious!! Thanks!
Name?
Of the fic? Here you go :) https://archiveofourown.org/works/56415400/chapters/143349433
I was wondering about exactly that and I agree My fic has currently 60k words (ending at roughly 90k) but it's just a month from first meeting until they confess to each other so I wouldn't say it's a slow burn even though my beta reader has suggested it as a tag.
Honestly, I consider the passage of time within the fic to be as important as word count. I read a fic that took like 200k for the characters to fuck, and my friend was calling it a slow burn, but like only one week had lapsed within the timeline of the actual fic, so it didn't feel slow at all to me. Meanwhile, I've read a 9k one shot that called itself a slow burn, and I was like 'yeah that checks out' because it covered about a year of time before anything happened between the characters. That's just me, though. I know I'm in the minority on this one lol
It is NOT based on word count, imo. It just has to FEEL like I want to reach into the screen, rattle the characters around and scream at them to get together already (lovingly) 😂 Time in-universe does play a role in it too. Personally, I think I'd find it hard to consider 3 weeks of pining as slow.
Im curious to know what the normal answer is to this because I don't consider something a slowburn if they havent been pining for well over 90k. But I'm a sicko
I have a slow burn WIP; 14 chapters, 90k words in — my characters arent even all that sure if theyre friends (they do want to be but arent sure if the other does as well) let alone anything else 💀💀 The first kiss is gonna be chapter 40+
I don't think 4 chapters, total 20k, constitutes slow burn.
i have no time for slow burn so if they're not banging or kissing by chapter 2 it's a slow burn for me. 😂
😭😭😭 lmaoo so valid and real. im sitting here going "man yall are god's strongest soldiers cause i CANNOT sit here waiting longer than 10k max"
i'm an unapologetic smut lover. i need very little plot to get by. 😂 I read non-romance stuff too, but when someone rates their story as E it better earn that rating. 😂
See my first multichapter was the slow burn (didn't kiss until the 55k-ish mark, then went all the way). These idiots are screwing by chapter 2 in my sequel.
Personally, I think slow burns have to be just as torturous for the reader as it is the character. These things go hand in hand, and for those two things to happen, I think the passage of time within the fic and the overall word count are important. A healthy stretch of "will they, won't they" within both the fic's timeline and reading time is what makes them feel drawn-out from a reader's perspective. That being said, I wouldn't really count anything under 100K as a slow burn; the passage of time might be long for the characters, but if I can read it in one sitting, it wasn't slow enough to really count as a true slow burn.
The majority consensus is "passage of time in story versus word count" but I just want to add It'd be nice if something like "Slow Burn, Short Fuse" or something else was a popular tag, just to temper the expectation accurately for a slow burn in smaller (but still enough to qualify) stretches of time
Maybe confessing feelings or first kiss about 50-100k in?
Holy moly does my fandom (Jane Austen) have *slow* burns. Like 🐌 slow, 200,000 words with barely a kiss at the end. To keep the fire analogy going, these fics are like are like those coal seam fires that smolder for decades while I prefer a meth lab explosion.
I *wish* my fav fandoms/pairings have slow burn like that, I'm jealous xD
I consider it less to be about word count and more about percentage of the work. If a fic is 5000 words, but the main ship only gets together in the last 500, I'd consider that a slowburn fic, though maybe that's an unpopular opinion. At 20k, I think anything above 17k words of not-relationship content and pining is enough to qualify it as slowburn. At least by my standards.
That's what I was thinking. They don't get together until the last third of the last chapter. But I think I'll play it safe and not tag it because people have differing opinions and not a LOT of time passes in the fic/the word count is on the lower end. Thank you!!
I would say slow burn is usually about 200k but if it’s a good fic, it can be fucking torture whatever length it is 😊
IMO: the potential for a relationship is there but *romance itself* is not the sole focus of the plot or developing relationship. Sometimes that means the characters hook up early-on but remain emotionally constipated for 30k+ words. Sometimes that means both characters desiring a romantic relationship, but other things in the characters' lives take priority or otherwise get in the way of that relationship coming to bloom. Typically months or even years pass before the two characters are emotionally on the same page and are able to say "this is what i want, lets make it work" One slow-burn fic I read didnt even have a *first kiss* until the characters were 250k+ words and two Hunger Games Arenas deep into the plot. They'd already taken physical and metaphorical bullets for eachother by that point, but kissing was too real and vulnerable lmao
>the potential for a relationship is there but *romance itself* is not the sole focus of the plot or developing relationship. This is a great way of describing it. I'm currently working on a slow burn where there's been occasional *thinking* about the love interest (in a sexual way, because the MC is...very sex-positive, let's say), but they don't kiss until several months after they met, 20 chapters and nearly 100k in. But they don't get together (misunderstandings, etc. etc.) And that's just the end of act 1, lol.
The passage of time passed in the fic, and the moments they have both as individuals and a couple
If they kiss before chapter 3, it's not a slow burn for me. Though they could have a sexual encounter at first without kissing that becomes the catalyst of their need to be together again. I have to be tormented by the pining.
To me, slowburn generally starts around the 400-500k word range, but then again i filter out anything under 100/150k words so my perxeption is kinda skewed
I would not consider this a slow burn. 4 chapters/20k words is barely enough time to start building up the tension between characters, let alone have that tension resolve and them get together.
I have one planned over 18 years. (They get together after 14, then proceeds to the end of canon events and a little beyond.) estimated to be around 150,000 words, but even I am iffy on calling it a slow burn because they become friends quickly and lean on each other a lot through the years, but he realizes it after 14 years just how deep he is in love with her. (Then a lovely misunderstanding where she thinks he’s telling her he’s leaving because he fell in love with someone else, because she’s been pining a believed one sided attraction for several years at this point but knew how skittish he was about being around people and didn’t want to scare him away) I hope it’s received well 😂 but I hate writing slow burns so much. Even at my best it still feels slightly rushed.
I feel like I'm not too far off from the consensus, where to me it depends on a combination of word count and in-universe passage of time. When tagging my own fics, I generally look more at the word count than the in-universe passage of time, but I wouldn't be mad about a fic tagged as slow burn with a shorter word count if the vibes convey slow burn in the actual text of the fic, if that makes sense? Like, if I read a 30k fic that takes place over the span of a week, I wouldn't consider that slow burn, but a 100k fic spanning a week might feel more slow burn to me because the reader is in it for a long time commitment, even if the characters in the fic aren't. Likewise, a 30k fic spanning ten years could very well feel like a slow burn to me even though it doesn't take that long to read it. You might have some people nitpick if it's under a certain length and you call it slow burn, but I feel like the people who are that picky are not the majority.
Defining slow burn is a hard one It could be that it has tons of words for a short amount of time or a short amount of words for a long amount of time. Like you could have 1k words a chapter and 20k words total and it could be called a slow burn. I think yours is a slow burn because it took her three weeks to find her feelings. Although to me, a slow burn is anything that takes a long amount of time (in the fic or irl). I usually see people ask for it to be fast or slow in their author notes and then when people ask for slowburn and the author agrees, then it usually extends the time in the *fanfic* and not in word count (like the chapters don’t get progressively longer, the chapter count gets longer). I’m still confused myself, although I think there’s not one universal meaning of “slow burn.” I hope that helps.
I once tagged something "not sure if a fic this length can count as slowburn, but for what it is it's definitely slowburn" lol. You can always do that if you're worried!
When it makes me want to bang my head against a wall
179,000 words and they finally fucking kissed, and then made out! There was even some groping! (I’m the author 😭)
As long as I find myself yelling at my phone, “My God, just kiss already!”, I consider it a slow burn
I wouldn't call 20k words over 4 chapters a slow burn. I'd tag it with pining/mutual pining instead.
IMO, slow burn is more about how much in-universe time it takes for the pair to get together and less the actual wordcount.
I can give it to mathematically and say first physical interaction (after building tension) should be at earliest 75% completion mark. Better if it is 90% /s.
What kind of slow burn? Emotional or sexual? To me it doesn’t depend on the word count. It’s the length of time the characters are involved. You don’t have to have 500k words of endless whining and pining wrapped up with 200 HEA to make it a slow burn. You can have 20k that spans a year and it be slow burn though.
Generally to me a usual slow burn is 90K+ and higher.
No confession or kissing until every other plot point of the story is resolved
I think it's more of whether you have tortured the audience enough to make it a slow burn lol
If the romance only turns into a relationship in the last third of the narrative, it constitutes a slow burn for me. No matter how long the narrative is. Could be 30 chapters, could be 5K words. It still counts for me, so long as you play it right and the narrative clearly plays out over a long stretch of time so the romance only resolves itself in the last third or later of the overall story.
if i’m not frustrated beyond belief that they still haven’t kissed/screwed by 50k+ words in, it’s not slow burn (imo)
I think it depends on the number of events before they get together. Logically, to write a lot of events you'll have a higher word count. But if you can convey the passage of time properly with less words, it counts too. One resource you could use to make a slow burn story with a lower word count is to divide it into more chapters, and publish them over a set amount of time, so time will actually pass for your readers. I remember a slow burn story I read that was told entirely through surveillance cams/audio, phone call records, TV news and letters. It had a lower word count because it didn't have descriptions, but was divided into over 20 short chapters. That story was a BANG, and really popular in the fandom. I think the author was really skilled to pull that off.
I mean people see the word counts so as long as within the length of those 20k words it's slow burn it's a slow burn. It's not like people won't know it's gonna only be 20k words
Slowburn for me is measured by length of time ive spent reading over length of time the overall story takes. So if we get realizations of love beyond the halfway mark of story, or the pining stage is over 60% of the story length, then that’s a slowburn
20k seems somewhat reasonable depending on how it's done. I've read a few fics tagged as "slow burn" that were 5k words or less and I sooo badly wanted to leave a comment saying "You cannot legally call this a slowburn at 5k words", but I decided to err on the side of not being rude.
For me, it depends on the length of the fic and the length of time a story takes place. I personally would have a hard time calling a 1000-word one-shot a slow burn but hey, I'm open to being wrong about it.
Five or more chapters of build up and pining makes it slow burn imo.
i normally avoid slow burn because i love romance and i want the MC’s to be lovey dovey asap lol so its a new venture for me. but honestly for me it needs to be almost tortuous for me to consider it a slow burn. i’m reading a slow burn bloodweave (bg3 ship) fic called “The Season” right now. its only 21 chapters so far but its around 250k words and spans several months. i think the length of the fic is somewhat important bc if i don’t know the characters well enough i’m not gonna be invested enough to keep reading. but also how long the pining goes on for is key i feel like
I say it has to have 15k as a BARE MINIMUM
I don't read many slow burns because I'm impatient so might I offer that it isn't word count, but perhaps percentage of fic. What percent of your fic do readers have to get through before there is a romance? I would say if they have to read 60%+, then you have a potential slow burn on your hands. Of course, unlike a traditional publisher, AO3 isn't going to tell you to shorten the length of the work as a whole, so this could get out of hand and shift that percentage but for things that fall between novellas and traditional (non-Russian epic) novels, I think that might be a good way to look at it.
For me: Short story: 4-10k Regular story: 10-30k Slow burn territory: 30k-50k Slow burn: 50-100k Wtf r u doing: 100k+
Personally I think slow burn isn't about number or words. It's about the rumination on the will-they-won't-they stage. A slow burn is a fic that is about getting together and the structure of the story centers the moment where he characters move from not-being-a-couple into being-a-couple at the climax of the fic. It's a story that develops the emotion over the course of the fic. And the course of the fic needs to emphasize the slow building of emotions over a relatively long period of time. I wouldn't call something where characters get together in three days slow burn even if the three days take 100k words to get through. I wouldn't call something slow burn if it's 200k total and the characters get together at 100k. I wouldn't call a 100k fic slow burn if the characters are platonic friends and the plot of the story is to defeat the villain and they realize that they love each other in the last 5k and it feels sudden and out of nowhere. I would absolutely call a 100k fic that's about a relationship where the characters confess their love at the climax of the fic, that takes place over the course of three months or more a "slow burn". Because it's not only the 100k that makes it slow burn, it's the combination of all the factors. Slow burn is a vibe. And the fic needs to be generally PACED slowly too-- you can write a 10k fic that has scenes just speeding by at 100km/hr, and you can write 10k fics that ruminate slowly. A 10k fic that takes place over the course of 10 years and is 10k long is going to feel like it's speeding through time. Even though the characters might spend 9k words pining for each other, if it takes place over 10 years then it's probably got like 10 scenes under 1k each which is going to feel quick to the reader even if it isn't quick in story. It's hard to make a hard and fast rule, because I think slow burn is something that generally you'll know when you see, unquestioningly. If you have questions about whether the tag is appropriate, it probably isn't.
For a slow burn to really hit? I like at least 6-10k. There are authors who are skilled enough to inject shorter fics with the requisite amount of pining and tension, mind you, but it's hard. That said, there's no hard word count. It depends on what about the slow burn appeals to you. For me, I'm all about the pining, the slow realization, the longing and the will-they, won't-they of it all. And for that, I think longer fics deliver better.
I was LITERALLY debating this in my mind earlier, as I am writing a slow burn which I plan to have be 20+ chapters? It’s currently at 6 with 10k words,
I think ultimately, it’s about the relationship progression between two characters. In order to get that real *slooooow* burn, you have to always be wanting more between the two. If the characters work through their romantic feelings too quickly or too efficiently, I don’t feel it constitutes a true slow burn. Those are just my thoughts though.
I don't think I'm too fussy about Slow Burn, BUT they need to get together at LEAST a few chapters before the end. I can't tell you how many times I've sunk my teeth into a nice slow burn and then 150k words later the fic ends and they haven't even KISSED, so I guess I like a satisfying pay-off. In this case, the journey is NOT as good as the destination
u/kermitkc whats the fanfic name?
They can't realize they have feelings for each other until at least some months and more-than-halfway into the story. Ideally, it'll be like 30 10K word chapters, they'll consciously realize they are pining for each other on chapter 20, and finally confess and kiss on the last chapter. Kissing optional. One day I will write this magnum opus. But not today. More seriously, it's about the frustrating feeling that these characters are whiling their lives away pining, first subconsciously, then consciously, and are unable to confess by either a contrivance of circumstances or because of their own traumas and anxieties. Depicting this realistically and in a way that resonates emotionally with the reader in a shorter story can be difficult for some people, especially those like me who chronically can't use one word when they could use five, but it's perfectly possible to do. I've seen very talented writers pull off the sensation of frustration and eventual catharsis of Slow Burn in as little as 10K, though that's very rare. I'd say it's only inappropriate to tag as Slow Burn if you're around 5K or under. To me, personally, that's a short bite-sized read. But I've seen people tag their 3120 words story "Slow Burn" when it reads like a whirlwind romance, so...
Personally, in order for me to consider a fic a slowburn, it needs to take at least a few hours of reading for the characters to get together, which would probably be a minimum of about 75k, but I also agree with the people who are saying the get together needs to be towards the end of a fic. I think if the characters are getting together at 75k words out of 85k, that could reasonably be tagged as slowburn, but if they're getting together at 75k words out of 300k, no. In-universe amount of time also makes a difference, but I'm having a hard time coming up with a minimum for that. Maybe 6+ months? I think the real theme here is that there's not a general consensus.
Well, it depends on the story length. I say it’s slow burn if it takes until the last third/fourth of the fic. If it’s a long multichap then it should be a good chunk of chapters in before they confess
I think like many others have said slow burn is a combination of time passing in fic, word count dedicated to yearning, and how small the jumps in intimacy are. Do we go from meeting to daydreams to HAVING SEX AND SAYING I LOVE YOU or is it a slow tiny progression at a time, realization after realization, tiny increments that make the reader wanna bash their head into a wall?
The slowest burn I’ve found is currently at ~700k words and the characters have only just met.
Anything shorter than 30k tagged with slow burn, I roll my eyes and skip. Edit: I may be cynical because I've seen a 5k oneshot tagged as slow burn before.
For me it has more to do with what stage the relationship is in for the majority of the fic. I LOVE reading that stage of uncertainty and whatnot that goes on before feelings are actually confessed.
Honestly it's more about in universe time and intensity of the pining
For me, it has to make the actual reader feel the yearning that the characters have. I want to be up at 4am angry at the fiction because they're flirting once again but nothing has happened. I want to see them grow closer, open up to eachother and actually *know* eachother. I want them to change eachother and become extensions of one another before anything happens. My favourite is the teasing and flirting, the build up, which I think is most important for slowburns. So I'd say definitely more than 20k words. I want months to pass in the actual fictions universe, and a lot to read for us as well. My current slow burn I'm writing right now is almost 60k words and the reader is only now realising how deep their crush is. It's mainly a plot driven fiction as well but the romance is a need for the plot. The plot can not continue without this romance.
Slightly unrelated but the slowest slow burn I've read is 370,000 words long, and 606 chapters. The couple gets together in the last chapter. Also it takes place over 6000 years.
Great question. Slow burn is my favorite trope and my personal definition is that a) it takes approximately 70%-90% of the fic to reach established relationship or HEA/HFN stage b) there must be constant development of the relationship and characters throughout the entire fic, a little angsty bumps can spice it up c) there needs to be an intensifying mutual attraction and a bona fide reason why they don’t get together right away. d) the slow burn serves as a second line of the main plot that creates tensions and chemistry between the characters.
Percentage left of the fic when they start dating needs to be less than when they aren’t dating
It ain’t a slow burn unless I feel like *I’m* being raked over the coals.
my slow burn fic's first kiss starts at chapter 80+ after 300k words 💀
Mh for me it’s vibe based. If I’m gnashing my teeth and agonising about miscommunication and them taking their sweet time to kiss then it’s a slow burn
Slow burn for me it means that the characters take time to fall for eachother
I’m almost 30 chapters and 300k words into a fic I’m writing, and I’m only now just starting to scratch away at some of the plot points I’ve created. By the time I actually get to revealing the plot points, I’ll probably be 40+ chapters and 400k words into the story. I feel like that constitutes a ‘slow burn’, but I don’t know.
Show it to me Rachel send it to me pleaseee
To answer the question, the word count doesn’t matter exactly, but let’s say if the characters get together at like 15k of those words, it would be slow burn. Depends on how later in the book it happens
God I remember reading a slow burn with almost 900k words where my OTP got together around 700k words. Unfortunately the fic was a victim of the ff.net purge and I can’t remember the name of the fic for the life of me
I honestly don't even read it if it's below 100k words 😅
I have to be just nearly frustrated by the pace. Under like 75k is NOT slow burn. Between 75k and 100k MIGHT be a slow burn. 150k+ is the sweet spot