Food…It’s something every living being needs to survive. So of course your characters have to eat. It should come into play at some point in your story. Whether it is something they have an abundance of or a story of survival and they think about it.
How often your character eats can be determined by the flow of the story. When they have time to eat. What kinds of food they eat. Is all determined by what your characters story is like.
Are they vegetarian or vegan? Allergic to any foods? Have favorites or dislikes? Of course they do lol. They have something unique to them as we all do with their food choices.
Having time to eat is an obstacle my characters in the current novel I am working on encounter at times, on account of interruptions in life. It’s one of those important things through life, is the need to consume food to survive. If you notice, our lives revolve around food. What time we are going to eat each meal, for some it’s the worry of not eating enough, others eating too much. Ever notice that the most profitable time for fitness stuff and new diets is right after the holiday season? That way people can burn off what they ate over the holidays.
My reasoning is that writing about food is something we all should do even if it’s take out, or microwave meals in your novel. Maybe they are addicted to too much of a certain beverage or food. We all have our food vices, unfortunately ice cream is mine lol.
~ Making it real makes it relatable as I say through almost all of my blog posts. However, you don’t have to say that they ate….
A pan roasted Chicken breast with a garlic butter reduction, with a side of creamy mushroom risotto and Polonaise topped French green beans, paired with a lovely Sauvignon Blanc (Wine).
(That’s my years in Culinary school and working in restaurants for awhile, showing, lol. If you’ve never had it before, it’s an amazing meal.)
~ Even though that would be a great description if you are trying to describe a more elaborate and expensive meal, I doubt your characters would be eating that all the time. So maybe try this…
Roasted chicken breast, with a side of creamy rice and green beans.
It’s short and sweet, but gets the point across that they had a tasty, well rounded meal.
~ However, if they aren’t into cooking much and the reality is that they eat…
Frozen pizza and a store bought pre packaged salad, with some boxed wine and ice cream for dessert.
Then make it so lol. Or if all they eat is junk food, or fast food, or take out Then be realistic. It doesn’t have to be the most elaborate thing you can think of. If it helps then think of what you eat in a week. Practice by describing what you eat each meal without over explaining it.
If you are explaining a cooking procedure in your novel. My advice is to look up a recipe unless you’ve done it several times yourself and reduce that recipe down to basics. Detail is great, but too much is boring for those not into cooking/baking. So don’t just copy a recipe word for word for a fictional story. Describing the basics of a recipe can be fun in your story, especially if a character isn’t efficient in the kitchen. Meaning, that you can show how human they are by making some mistakes. Even professional chefs make mistakes in the kitchen at times.
There are stories I’ve read that are more Sci-Fi related, or even Fantasy that I wish they would describe what the characters ate a little more. If it’s an alien race or something I think that would be a very awesome area to explore. That could give insight as to who they are.
My characters In my current work in progress, eat pretty normal, as in regular, not fancy food. They enjoy, some Italian foods but there is a general love for Pizza and Salad lol. However, there are the occasional restaurant moments. Sometimes it will be a fancier meal, other times it could be something more fast food related. That’s really the reality, sometimes we want to cook and other times we need something quick and easy. In my case, out of my two main characters one enjoys cooking and the other doesn’t really do it that often.
A personality can determine so much about a person, including what type of foods they eat, how much they eat, where they prefer to eat (as in what setting) and whether they enjoy to make it or not. What are your characters favorite or most common foods they eat? Please leave it down in the comments, I would love to hear the differences between our characters food preferences.
Thank you for reading my blog…Until Next Time…JUST KEEP WRITING.
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Tiffany’s Writing Journey 
Never thought to incorporate mealtimes into my stories. I also tend to neglect it in favour of the story. Maybe I should look into it more. Thanks for this!
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I’m so glad it helped 😁 There are so many amazing ways to throw in a detail or two about your characters to help tell the reader who your character really is. Thank you so much for commenting 😊
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