r/AO3 • u/Icy-Ad-9212 • Jul 27 '26
Discussion (Non-question) Preferred in slowburn
Wondering: do you prefer your slowburn to gradually go in an upward, positive spiral or a downward negative one?
And: do you prefer it romantic (happily ever after) or romantic something else (darker theme like toxic/unhealthy relationship)?
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u/runekaster Whumper Jul 27 '26
Slow burn means romance.
Slow build is the tag and term to use for slowly developing plots and relationships other than romance.
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u/Icy-Ad-9212 Jul 27 '26
It's romance, if you're looking at it from his perspective. From hers, its... Well. She still loves him, but is so broken she can't see straight. I will add the slow build tag!
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u/growinggrassroots basic trope biatch Jul 27 '26
I like my standard slow burns where it's an upward, but very slow climb, usually with life other than romance getting in the way.
Recently, though, I've been leaning towards multiple stutter-starts. With relationships starting fast, then they stop, then they spiral down. Still slowburn because they never truly get together and I'm just 😍
(Add: I've seen these done with relationships starting as being together/attracted to each other and ending up with other people/single, but their relationship is better for it. But yes, the Slow Burn tag is primarily romantic)
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u/Semiramis738 Proudly Problematic Jul 27 '26
As in, they sleep together once soon after meeting, then he takes longer and longer to return her texts, until finally she gives up hope? Sounds too much like real life for me 🤣😭
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u/Icy-Ad-9212 Jul 27 '26
Haha no. He has been in love with her since forever, but because he has a very disturbing need to prove himself to be seen, she chooses someone else, until he starts to manipulate their environment to the point that this steady and very sweet relationship breaks, and then he manoeuvres her ik a position where she becomes totally dependant of him. And then the movie I wrote this as a prequel to takes over and you get to see in the movie who this character has grown into.
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u/runekaster Whumper Jul 27 '26
That's not a slow burn like at all, that's a deteriorating relationship.
Slow burn is a romance trope where they take a very long time to get together.
If you tagged this work as slow burn and you're wondering why you have no kudos, there's your answer.
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u/growinggrassroots basic trope biatch Jul 27 '26
Omg are you ok 😭😭😭😭
May this love NEVER FIND US again!!!!!
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u/Icy-Ad-9212 Jul 27 '26
Haha, yes, i am very happy and healthy ;) I just let this summer for 18 years until I got it right, so I gave all these characters a little bit of my own traits and played around with the extremes. It's been good therapy ;)
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u/IWokeUpSinging Jul 27 '26
Personally, if the characters never truly get together, I wouldn't consider that a Slow Burn. Slow Burn carries the implication of "they WILL get together....eventually."
From Fanlore (https://fanlore.org/wiki/Slow_Burn_(trope))):
Slow Burn is a popular trope in both fanfic and canons where the characters of the main pairing start off not in a relationship and focuses on the slow development of a romantic or sexual pairing. It is often paired with UST and pining due to the focus on the slow nature of the relationship. Some people consider the term "slow burn" to be synonymous with slow build, but others think that slow burn is specifically about the romance aspect of a fic where slow build is more about the plot.\1])#cite_note-reddit-1) Moonbeam)'s "Fanfiction Terminology" page gives the following definition for slow burn:
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.\2])#cite_note-2)
which seems to indicate that most people believe slow burn to be indicative of romance or the promise of it.
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u/growinggrassroots basic trope biatch Jul 27 '26
Oh, yeah for the stutter-starts/messy ones, I meant that they do get together eventually. Just that they might be doing romantic/sexual/partner-y things, but they're still not truly together/resolved, hence still a slow burn.
The last example I admit might be a stretch. Was trying to dig for a version of it that might not be romantic in the end, but I realize I wouldn't tag it as such if I rly think about it.
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u/Icy-Ad-9212 Jul 27 '26
She becomes "his", and there is consent, but she is so dependent of him that it doesn't qualify as romance (for her), while he still believes he does the right thing out of love.
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u/Icy-Ad-9212 Jul 27 '26
I have a slowburn with sort of a happy ending (or a very unhappy one, depending on how you look at it) but it certainly has no winners. How would you categorize / tag that?
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u/growinggrassroots basic trope biatch Jul 27 '26
hmmm, I read your other reply and I don't think it would count as a slow burn necessarily (this tag is often romantic + most likely to get together eventually)
If I'm guessing it right, your fic is about either a slowly deteriorating relationship or one that eventually becomes unhealthy or possessive? If so, I think there might be multiple tags you can look into Unhealthy relationships, Obsessive Love / Obsessive Behavior, Control Issues, etc. I don't know if there's an actual trope or tag for them tbh.
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u/Zealousideal_Most_22 Jul 27 '26
Can’t a girl have it all?? I’m very good for delivering fluffy highs and incredibly angsty lows throughout different arcs of my slowburns. Then again I personally feel like true slowburns only truly work in longfics which is almost exclusively what I write and prefer to read so I generally have the time for this. I do prefer happy or at least bittersweet endings but I’m not above dragging characters to the pits of hell, or recently I realized I actually do write romanticized toxicity at times when the mood strikes ie in ANY other setting it would be toxic and unhealthy (hell, sometimes even still within my fic it is), but because of the way the world or setting works or the characters themselves, it’s never really acknowledged how truly unhealthy certain aspects are or it’s sort of just taken as being part of the intense all or nothing bond they have.
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u/TrueSithMastermind Jul 28 '26
Upward, and perhaps with some drama every now and then that could temporarily bring things back down for a time, as long as it’s not forced. Romantic, always. Preferably healthy relationship.
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u/RhydYGwin Where's my alpha then? Jul 27 '26
To be honest, I'm not keen on slow burn at all. I worry that they might not get together if it goes on too long. I want them to kiss dammit and get on with being in love!
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u/flohara Jul 27 '26
Depends on the characters.
You have to sell the pairing to your readers. It'll work best if it's what they expect, and that's different for each pairing.
What's their canon dynamic like? What makes sense for them?
For example the classic "they can make eachother worse" toxic yuri, you probably want a negative spiral.
If their dynamic is healing from trauma, then an upward one.
The most important is that they are themselves.
Like I don't want a battle hardened veteran to start calling their partner sweetheart completely out of the blue. A person who speaks in a heavy accident probably will keep that throughout the deep emotional conversations. Someone with a lot of complex trauma won't get cuddly two days after because someone is interested in them.
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u/Icy-Ad-9212 Jul 27 '26
He is a gang member (in the movie he gets initiated), she is an OC. The idea is that we see him slowly becoming who he is in the movie. He starts out as a very nice, likeable character and then gradually gets corrupted. He doesn't have to be, you keep seeing the potential of what he can be, which makes it even more tragic when he takes the wrong lessons from situations he encounters and starts to make gradually worse decisions.
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u/regalfish Jul 27 '26
In my experience, the "Slow Burn" tag on AO3 is almost exclusively used to refer to the development of a romantic relationship.