How to write slow-burn romance…that will make your readers fall in love 😍

what's up my friend abby here and welcome back to writer's life wednesdays where we come together to help you make your story matter and make your author dreams come true quick think of your favorite ship your otp the two characters that when they're in the same room together having great chemistry you just lose your mental capacity to function got it okay now chances are you love this fictional couple so much because the author did an amazing job writing a slow burn romance now what if i told you that you can write an addictive compelling emotionally

incapacitating romance just like that with your own characters and that one day one of your readers may be watching this exact same video and think of your characters when i ask them what their favorite ship is i'm serious slow burn romance comes in many different tropes best friends to lovers enemies to lovers love triangles fake dating secret dating you name it basically the only trope that doesn't work with slowburn is insta love because it's love at first sight and it's totally unrealistic but i do believe that it can be done well so if you're going

to attempt insta love i recommend checking out my other video on that right here in this video i'm sharing my five best tips for writing a super satisfying slow paced drawn out slow burn romance that will turn your readers into rabid rambling fans who cannot even write a proper review because they cannot emotionally handle how perfect these characters are together plus we'll be looking at the pitfalls to avoid when writing romance so grab a notebook and let's get started why does your story matter good question what if i told you that there's a science behind

every great story i don't just teach you how to write i teach you how to change the world with your story and make your author dreams come true okay number one thing to remember romance is all about each individual character going on their own journey and transforming as a person yep it's literally just like any other story without romance in fact that's part of what makes well-crafted romance stories so good because it's not just about this relationship being like the magic elixir that both these characters have been missing out on their whole lives that's a

common pitfall that a lot of writers fall into they think that the story can begin and end with just the romance no no no no no no these two characters have to have their own unique internal conflict preferably separate from each other so that even if the relationship wasn't a thing there would still be a story these characters would still have goals desires fears misbeliefs fatal flaws these are all vital ingredients to creating relatable three-dimensional characters so take the time to build your characters before throwing the romance at them here's what will happen the character's

pre-existing conflict will create new conflicts when it encounters the romance with the other character it's like this beautiful chemical reaction of angst and desire and fear ah it's so good i recommend using my character profile to build your characters first before you start crafting their romantic relationship but if you already feel like you are confident in your characters like you have built these characters to have good internal conflict and you're ready to go awesome here are some more questions to ask yourself at the beginning of your romance what is the internal conflict both my characters

are personally struggling with what kind of relationship do they have with each other at the start of the story and why how long have they known each other how did they meet how much does character a know of character b's internal conflict how much does character be know of character a's internal conflict are they keeping any secrets from each other if yes why number two leave something to be desired i don't mean that in the classic sense of the idiom like your writing leaves a lot to be desired honey i mean literally leave something for

later that we can desire don't give me all the romantic goodness at once early on i've seen a lot of writers do this and let me tell you nothing kills romantic tension faster than giving me the romance before the tension i mean that's like the whole concept of romantic tension is that there is an unfulfilled desire between these two characters that's good that's what we want to build up the desire the slow burn chemistry the longing looks the almost touches the almost kisses those moments are always more powerful and more captivating because we care about

these characters and we want to see them get what they want but we know that their fears and their misbeliefs are holding them back now when i talk about romantic tension i am not just talking about the physical things because you can put all of that same physicality into a romance without any real character building or relationship building and it is dry and flat and boring actually that goes for real relationships too whoa getting philosophical up in here right because it doesn't matter so this is less about how sensual you can make your romantic tension

and more about a depth of emotion because like i stressed before these characters should have their own unique internal conflict that they're dealing with and the romance just works to push them outside their comfort zone and make them challenge their beliefs even more they shouldn't just want something from each other physically your story should focus more on what they want from each other emotionally number three keep the momentum going here's one of my pet peeves about slow burn romance when the author confuses slow burn for slow to crawl and just stop actually take one step

forward one step back one step forward one step back two steps forward three steps back this is not slow burn romance this is infuriating why because there's no emotional progress nothing is changing these characters are just stuck on this annoying fake tension merry-go-round rehashing the same problem over and over again not finding a solution ignoring the problem rinse repeat i'm all for having conflict in the relationship having misunderstandings and secrets and lies and betrayal yes all of that is good vital delicious but you have to keep a sense of momentum going cause and effect don't

let things stagnate for too long if the romance starts to feel stale and boring throw something in to spice it up a lie a secret a betrayal and then a consequence to that maybe a dark moment of confusion and angst then a recovery forgiveness a greater understanding and empathy between these two characters the possibilities are endless but don't let slowburn slow to a stop if you're writing a series and you want the slowburn romance to burn slowly over the course of several books you can still keep that sense of momentum going by letting the relationship

change over time maybe keep the two characters in the friend zone for a while before they start to feel more for each other or you can literally take several different romance tropes and use them all like maybe book one is enemies to best friends and then book two is best friends to lovers ending with some kind of cliffhanger of a betrayal that ruins everything then book three follows and ex-lovers rebuilding their broken relationship arc or maybe they end up being rivals and enemies and they kill each other at the end the possibilities are endless number

four story structure is your friend if you've been here on my channel for literally two seconds you know how much i love to talk about the three act story structure so much so in fact i made a whole 13 part video series breaking down every single story beat of the three act story structure and you can watch that right here the cool thing about story structure is it gives your characters your plot your romance a sense of direction momentum cause and effect story structure is a valuable guide to keep you on the right track and

to keep your romance on the right track i've had a lot of writers ask me to make a video on using the three act story structure for a romance specifically but the thing is i can't because every romance is unique for example if you're writing a best friends to lovers arc that is going to look totally different than a ex-lover's rebuilding their broken relationship arc like yes there are similarities but there is no one-size-fits-all structure however you can still use the 3x story structure for romance you just have to ask yourself the right questions and

make sure that you are letting the structure work for you not trying to make your story work for the structure for example the moment when character a realizes that they are in love with character b might be the inciting incident plot point or it might be the game changing midpoint or plot twist halfway through your story or it might be the big aha moment at the end all of these options are great and so it'll be different for different types of stories and tip number five write what you like and what your readers like i

am not into following trends i'm into writing what i like because i like it you should always always always write the book that you want to read make your story matter to you but there is value to be found in paying attention to what your readers like to whenever i see a social post or a blog post with random readers talking about their favorite tropes and scenarios in romance or any type of story really i save that post i keep a ton of them on a dedicated pinterest board and i look at them once in

a while i don't follow them like a guidebook obviously because that would just be silly and non-imaginative but i do remember the ones that i genuinely love and i keep an eye out for opportunities to include something similar in my own writing putting my own unique twist on it of course with my own characters whether that's a trope like a fake dating scheme between two friends or something more specific like your two characters being trapped in a dangerous situation and they have to escape and help each other to survive this is also a great way

to gather inspiration and writing prompts which might lead you to your next great idea but write what you like the thing about trends is they are always changing it's impossible to write a book that everyone will love okay so don't try to do that just write the book that you will love write the book that you want to read now at the end of your slow burn romance it is time to ask yourself some more questions how have both my characters changed and evolved as a result of their journey or their relationship with each other

how much has character a affected character b's internal conflict how much has character b affected character a's internal conflict are they still keeping any secrets from each other why or why not what does the future look like for these two characters okay boom that's it my best tips for writing slow burn romance that will make your readers fall in love and ship your characters so hard comment below and tell me what is your favorite ship what was the name that you threw out at the beginning of this video i want to know is it slow

burn is it best friends to lovers enemies to lovers tell me about it in the comments below this video smash that like button if you liked this video and be sure to subscribe to this channel if you haven't already because i post writing videos every single wednesday and i would love to have you here in the community also be sure to check out my patreon because that's where we go beyond videos and take storytelling to the next level the patreon community is not only the best way to support what i'm doing here on youtube but

it's also the only way to connect on one with me and get better guidance and advice on your story so go to patreon.com abbyemens and check out all the exclusive content i have over there for you until next week my friend rock on [Music] and that's okay to me that is so much more freeing to start a new routine and not have to commit to this has to be what i do all the time forever because that feels so constricting and just i can make it much more daunting yeah yeah oh my gosh do i

like enough to do it forever no