What is "slow burn"?

[ShelbyDawn57]

Slow burn is like slow cooking - dehydration rather than satiation.

Dehydration???
Girl, you need to come to Texas for some BBQ. Slow burn is letting the story simmer, building over time, marinating in its own juices until it practically falls apart at the touch. Moist, succulent, so full of flavor, your mouth explodes when you finally get a taste.

 

[lovecraft68]

Whoops! Every one of my stories is a slow burn but I never once thought to apply the tag. Ha. Of course I ignore tags before reading a story, like, whatever.

Never thought of using it as a tag, but then again, I suck at tags in general.

 

[StillStunned]

Or it’s too often drowned in narcissistic soy sauce. First-person soy sauce.

I hate soy sauce.

In Spanish, all soy sauce is first person.

- Soy Stunned

 

[PrimalDual]

Or it’s too often drowned in narcissistic soy sauce. First-person soy sauce.

I hate soy sauce.

This could be a metaphor. Am I allowed to check ChatGPT to confirm, or will the site ban me?

 

[ElectricBlue]

This could be a metaphor. Am I allowed to check ChatGPT to confirm, or will the site ban me?

No, but you won't get an answer you can rely on.

 

[Bazzle]

For me slow burn is the sex is not high on the priority of the main character for ages

 

[Voboy]

This could be a metaphor. Am I allowed to check ChatGPT to confirm, or will the site ban me?

You jest, but in my view this is a major threat from AI: those who grow up with it will never learn to trust their own judgement about things like figurative language or parts of speech, they'll just default to letting a computer tell them what they think they don't know.

It already happens in terms of general knowledge elsewhere on the internet: every kid's first impulse, if they lack knowledge, is to Google it. Once upon a time we at least used things like encyclopedias, which are conceptually similar but cognitively different: we had to know how to use various publishers' information, we had to know when to consult a thesaurus vs a dictionary vs a style guide, and we needed to develop the skills required to find the information ourselves.

Now? Google does it all. Soon (if not already), an AI will do it.

"Gee. Is this what a metaphor is?" AI will tell you. You never need to learn for yourself. That's a deep problem, I think. At least the OP is asking other writers rather than letting AI tell them what a "slow burn" is...

 

[TheRedChamber]

I'm going to jump in with a really obvious observation simply because it doesn't seem to have been made yet.

A lot of lesbian stories are 'slow burn' because they are often not solely about hooking up with someone and more about one or both of the couple realising that they are lesbians.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I'm going to jump in with a really obvious observation simply because it doesn't seem to have been made yet.

A lot of lesbian stories are 'slow burn' because they are often not solely about hooking up with someone and more about one or both of the couple realising that they are lesbians.

One structure I see sometimes in LS and in romance is where sex happens relatively early in the story, but then leads to slow-burn romance. "I'm straight, but just this once" becomes "okay, the sex is good" becomes "argh, feelings!"

 

[Cagivagurl]

I agree,
Lesbian, and Romance categories are more about relationships and discovery, and yes. A very slow burn...
Not so much about sex, as real relationships and emotions...
Which, I think brings a different perspective. It leans more towards erotica... Just my opinion... Less gratuitous...

Cagivagurl