ItвЂ™s only as things progress that she finds herself really looking into things. And in PatвЂ™s novel Madame ZeeZee, the first-person narrator is very much reluctant at first to look into the strange events that occur at the titular characterвЂ™s dance studio. Dracula is often described as a slow burn, especially in the novel and in the Nosferatu adaptations, and without a doubt the characters are reluctant to be in the machinations of a centuries-old vampire. In The Shining, none of the three main characters want to be in the hotel, but they all have to be so they can survive as a family, and itвЂ™s with a certain reluctance that the characters, especially Jack, acknowledge that thereвЂ™s something seriously wrong with the hotel they canвЂ™t handle and that they have to get the hell out of Dodge. We get brief glimpses of the truth of the hotel, and each glimpse gets nastier every time, but itвЂ™s not until the final third that things really hit a head and things become truly exciting.ДЄnother facet IвЂ™ve noticed about slow burns (the ones IвЂ™ve come across, anyway) is that thereвЂ™s a sort of reluctance on the parts of the characters. On that final one, King really takes his time. It lays the groundwork, showing us these very real characters and their struggles, the isolation they feel, and the true nature of the Overlook. Unlike other King stories like It, where things are big and scary from the very beginning, The Shining takes its time building things up. A good example of this is The Shining, both the book and the movie. Many of these slow burn stories are pretty calm for up to the first two-thirds, with little intervals during that time that ramp up the excitement for a brief period, before they have an explosive final third (not always but often). Getting an idea for them yet? And youвЂ™re probably familiar with a lot of these stories, even if you donвЂ™t know it. A good example of a slow burn would be a romance that, instead of having the characters hook up within the first half of the story and then showing them struggle to stay together, or having the characters finally confess and kiss at the end of the story after a number of travails, the story takes its time establishing these characters, the development of their relationship, and then showing the hook up, all without any big drama or too huge plot twists. Instead, the story takes its time getting to the storyвЂ™s resolution, using an intriguing set up, good characters and character development, and little bumps in the excitement levels to keep readers invested in the story.

So what is a slow burn story? Well, to put it simply, itвЂ™s a story that doesnвЂ™t try to rush itself or keep escalating things as the story goes on. But what exactly makes a story a вЂњslow burn?вЂќ Sadly, searching in Google didnвЂ™t pull up a lot of information, and I needed a short break from working on Rose (which is going great, BTW), so I thought IвЂ™d share my observations on the matter. IвЂ™ve heard a lot of people refer to certain stories as вЂњslow burns.вЂќ Heck, I even called my friend/colleague Pat BertramвЂ™s book Madame ZeeZeeвЂ™s Nightmare a slow burn mystery when I reviewed it on Amazon (and I highly recommend you read it, BTW). You know, for a little while now, IвЂ™ve been pondering something.

Slow burn definition