Chocolate is big news. They say it relieves depression. It's good for your heart. It's used as a diet aid. Chocolate is an aphrodisiac. Historians have found proof that cocoa beans were used as a form of currency around 1000 AD. And in the 1700s chocolate prevented stomach aches.
When I joined Romance Writers of America, I quickly realized that the other members devoured chocolate with as much passion as they devoured reading and writing romance novels. Wanting to fit in, I adopted the habit with great enthusiasm. And over the years, it's a habit that has served me well.
Writers tend to neglect their health. We immerse ourselves in fictional worlds, living life through our characters, becoming our characters, sometimes to the extent that we forget to come up for nourishment. Dare I suggest that dish of bite-size chocolates nestled within easy reach has saved lives? If the mainstream media got wind of it, I'm sure there'd be a story on this evening's news. "Chocolate saves writer from dying of starvation and word angst! More at 11:00."
I tell my students that to be a writer is to consume chocolate. Some look at me skeptically at first, but the assortment of foil-wrapped delicacies I keep on my desk soon has them seeing the light of reason and understanding. Not all of my students write romance, but the benefits of chocolate are universal to all genres. Chocolate is a writer's survival tool. Love, passion, fulfillment, desire...chocolate elicits an abundance of emotions, and that's what writing is all about.