Disclaimer: Once again, I am not the lucky brat that gets to claim Fruits Basket as my own. I am merely a simple fangirl. But enjoy none the less!
And boy was I surprised by the amount of reviews I got on Lesson One! I'm glad you guys all liked it so much! I hope that I'll be able to keep this standard of Shigureism high enough for you all to continue to enjoy my work.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LESSON TWO:
Providing Interest
by Shigure Sohma
"It was a beautiful day to be alive. The birds chirped, the bees buzzed around merrily, and the land
was coated in blooms and blossoms. Happy, peaceful clouds drifted lazily through the air as the sun
smiled from the sky. Little Lola laid on the top of a grassy knoll, her deep blue eyes full of happiness
and joy as a little hand reached up in a brave attempt to touch the sky, and a soft gust of wind caused
her light blonde hair to ripple in the breeze.
And somewhere in the midst of all of this beauty and grandeur, a cat was getting it's ass kicked."
In the eyes of Grand Master Novelist Shigure Sohma, a story is only as good as it's beginning. You
have exactly two paragraphs to grab someone's attention and make them want to read your book your
book. This is why, naturally, I start each and every novel with a steamy love scene. It is my humble
opinion that you can write the biggest piece of junk ever, and people will STILL read it in hopes of finding
something that good again later on in the novel. That, and people only buy books for steamy love scenes
anyway. So, it is my professional opinion that an attention-grabbing, hot, passionate, needy and sexy
opening helps readers to avoid wasting so much time on the bland, boring lovey-dovey stuff that normally
hide sex scenes between chapters 10 and 17.
On that note, one should also throw a sexy, steamy, knee-knocking love scene in at the end as well.
Why, you ask? Because everyone flips to the back page of a book before buying it out of the morbid
curious cat killing instincts (No offense, Kyo!) that lead us to want to know how the book ends before we
ever even read it. By providing yet another steamy sex scene at the end of the book, they will see that
and think, "Gee! That's swell. This author is extremely talented, and this book is just dandy." This will
cause you to earn a fan and, more importantly, sell a book.
On second thought, the best way to grab the interest of the reader would be to make the whole thing into
a huge sex scene. This way no matter what page they flip past (you know they ALWAYS flip through the
book to get a feel of it prior to buying), they will see the ever so attractive steamy sex scene.
And that, dear students, is how one attracts the interest of the reader.