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Monday, April 4, 2011

C is for...

CHOCOLATE!!!!

Milk, dark, white (yeah, I know, it's not really chocolate), semi-sweet...it's all good.  Cakes, pies, brownies, fudge, cookies, ice cream, cereal...just bring on the chocolate.  Chocolate eases stress, stokes the fires of inspiration, is the perfect reward and cures most things that ail. Okay, I admit it, I'm a chocoholic.  My dream vacation would be to Hershey Pennsylvania for a week.

Hi, my name's Jean and I'm a chocoholic.  It's been, ten minutes since my last bite of chocolate. :-)  Egads, it's been ten minutes since I've had chocolate!  Well...it's not that bad really, but I do like chocolate.   

What's this got to do with writing?  Just that one of the things well known by my friends is I enjoy chocolate.  What do your characters enjoy?  What is their passion?  When your character has a really, really, really bad day in fiction land, what do they turn to?  Some form of alcohol, ice cream or other comfort food, a hot bubble bath or a trip to the gym to work out some frustrations?

Showing the reader this bit of information gives depth to your character and helps them connect.  We want our reader to connect, to become part of the story.  We want our readers to relate to the characters we write about. 

And when they do, it's a good thing.


**Update:  This came to my email a few minutes ago and I just had to share with the rest of you chocoholics. I haven't tried them but they sound yummy.

Double Chocolate Brownies

Ingredients


2/3 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup egg substitute
1/4 cup fat-free hot fudge sauce, warmed

Instructions

1.Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat an 8-inch square baking dish with cooking spray.

2.In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except fudge sauce; mix well then spread half the batter in prepared baking dish. Top with hot fudge sauce then spread remaining batter over sauce.

3.Bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely then cut into squares and serve.

11 comments:

Spanj said...

You've totally distracted me with chocolate now. I was going to get out a bag of grapes to nibble on, but it might have to be the chocolate biscuits instead!

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

My character enjoys a good game of grav ball - similar to earth's racquetball.

Brianna said...

My character loves chocolate. I on the other hand don't. I feel all alone in the world sometimes because of it :)

Hart Johnson said...

Oh, MAN, I love chocolate. As for character crutches... depends on the characters... I've had a runner (stress gives those twitches that make her need to take off), but most of my MCs are teens, so those bad habits haven't been established yet...

Luana Krause said...

I love chocolate, too! My character relieves stress by playing the piano. Czerny scales allegro.

M.J. Fifield said...

My most of my characters seem to be indifferent to chocolate which is strange since I am an unabashed chocoholic. When they need to blow off steam, they tend to engage in a fierce bout of swordplay or a monster sarcasm rally.


M.J. Fifield
My Pet Blog

Sarah McCabe said...

The absolute best chocolate I've ever had is Perugina dark chocolate. It's soooooo creamy.

Stephanie V said...

Dark, dark chocolate! Hey! It's only lunchtime...don't tempt me yet.

Matt Conlon said...

OMNOMNOM


Matt Conlon dot com
Matt's Brew Log

Sue said...

Too cruel! It's only morning here! Love the dark with chili...Mmmmmmm and best of all no one else in my household does hehehe

Sue@traverselife

V.R. Leavitt said...

Ohhhh, great recipe. Will definitely have to give it a shot. :-)