Actually, I just started getting ideas for a new book - ideas that made me very excited - and I dove in and wrote the first two chapters without really knowing where I was going. I have *never* done this before: just started writing while a few floaty ideas start banging my brain cells together.
Today I left my desk where I'm trying to move past a *stuck* point in Chapter Three and said, "I'm making chocolate chip cookies."
Me - who is actually trying to lose 20 pounds by May and the Whitney Award Banquet!
My family then told me very plainly - and with laughter - that they noticed that last summer when I was on my Armageddon Book Deadline of six weeks for CIRCLE OF SECRETS (October, 2011) that I was making a lot of chocolate chip cookies during that time. "So you're writing a new book, eh?"
I made a small, half batch - just enough to tide me over and get through the hump. And I figured out what was stalling me! So now I can move forward! And all because of chocolate chip cookies.
And YES, just like a kid, I still eat the raw cookie dough, too. In big spoonfuls. :-) And the cookies MUST have LOTS of chocolate chips in them. And they must be warm, right out of the oven. And drunk with ice cold milk.
What is your writing food fetish?
I didn't even realize until this afternoon that I HAD one! How very strange . . .
7 comments:
Ohhhh... I love cookies! It seems like a lot of my favorite authors bake things when they can't figure out what to write next. It kind of makes me wish I could bake without blowing up the kitchen. :)
I am also now intrigued about your new book!
Oh, I never thought about having a writing food fetish. I sometimes wonder if I'm ADD, though, because I'll be typing away and randomly get up and go do something else before coming back to my story. I don't even think about it.
I don't know if my fetish for chocolate chip cookies is related to my writing or my love of food. :) Last year I was a little obsessed with finding the best choc. chip cookie recipe out there. Think I found a winner! If you like the salty/sweet - try sprinkling a little sea salt over the doughy cookies before you bake them...yum! Glad they helped you through a stuck-part!
If I have them, I use jelly belly beans to motivate me when I'm not feeling the groove but need to push for that goal--one jelly belly per paragraph. Dialogue doesn't count.
Kayla, LOL on blowing up your kitchen. That is too funny! I always tend to over bake (burn) my cookies and my kids have complained for years. Yesterday, I *underbaked* them and they turned out perfect. Go figure.
Donna: ADD - Yes! I tend to get very distracted, too!
Donea, I think a lot of writers snack because we tend to spend a lot of time staring numbly at the screen. It burns up a lot of brain calories!
David: one jelly bean per paragraph! Wow, you have such self-control. I'd be popping one every line!
As always - huge chocolate fan. Did you know the dough is less fattening than the cooked cookie. Something about the fats breaking down in the heat so you absorb (spelling? it's late for me) more of it. So eat all the dough you want - you are saving yourself a few calories later:-)
So the breaking up by baking up. Studdies show - please don't make me find the link - that your brain can only handle about an hour of work on a single project before it has to switch gears in order to recharge. I love cupcakes because you still get the 24 servings, but you don't have to stand around switching out baking sheets.
Good luck on the new book - you sound like a teenager in love.
I read on Facebook about cookies. So I came to your page thinking a recipie might be in print. But, i have looked and no recipie. Gary
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