- What's up my friend, Abbie here, and welcome back to
WritersLife 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 slow burn is insta-love because
it's love at first sight and is totally unrealistic. But I do believe that it can be done well, so if you're going to
attempt to 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 video 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. (elegant music) Okay, number one thing to remember, romance is all about
each individual character going on their own journey
and transforming as a person. Yup, 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 characters' preexisting 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. Oh, 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's 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 B 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. (Abbie chuckles) 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 most 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 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 stories 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 a 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 slow burn slow to a stop. If you're writing a series and you want the slow burn romance to burn slowly over the
course of several books, you can still keep that
sense of a 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 an 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 three-act 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 too. 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're 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 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 a 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 wanna 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 one-on-one with me and get better guidance
and advice on your story. So go to patreon.com/AbbieEmmons, and check out all the exclusive content I have over there for you. Until next week, my friend, rock on! (soft whoosh) 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-- - Like much more daunting too.
- Yeah, yeah. - Oh my gosh, do I like it
enough to do it forever? No.
