Chocolate, The Staff of Life

After reading Don's post, I'd like to suggest one more thing. Have chocolate at the signing table as an incentive to draw potential customers to your table.

I have to say that dark chocolate is my best friend and we get together every afternoon and ponder many things. One subject that rattles in my head while chewing a piece of dark chocolate is the time I've spend in rewriting chapters or paragraphs . . . even sentences in the manuscript I'm now working on, because I can't seem to get them where they need to be. I've even found myself trying to control the characters.

I know! I know! The author should never try to control the characters in his or her book, only let the characters control themselves and, at times, the author. It is the responsibility of the author to let the characters tell the story and just accommodate them by being there to do the typing. You might be interested to know that it was while chewing on a piece of dark chocolate, that I realized that I was actually trying to be the boss.

Then, this morning, I got up at 4:00 a.m. and spent three hours overworking six paragraphs with no chocolate to console me, because it is not wise, so I understand, to eat dark chocolate in the dark. But, if I find myself working on my manuscript at 4:00 tomorrow morning, I will take a detour into the kitchen, open the cupboard that stores the chocolate and remove three squares. Then I shall continue on my trek to the little office where I sit with my laptop, because I know that where there's chocolate there is clarity of the imagination. (Perfect excuse, don't you think?)

But, again, you may think that I'm becoming a hopeless chocoholic. But one does what is necessary to clear the path to publication.

Have a great day and please eat some chocolate.