Never Write While Sleep Deprived

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By Shiela Stewart

**Yawns** forgive me if I ramble a bit today. I’m going on day three of having very little sleep. No, I have not been up all night writing. That would be nice.  I’ve had a few rough days and nights dealing with some personal issues. Enough said. Anywho…back to what I was talking about. Writing with very little sleep. Have you ever done it? Did you actually accomplish anything? Were you able to read it?

The reason I ask is that I have written while on little sleep. And trust me, it was not readable. But at the time, I had a great idea and it couldn’t wait. I had to write it now. Since I couldn’t sleep, I sat in my living room, laptop ready and began to type like a mad woman. The ideas rolled out of me in a flow I’ve never felt before. I couldn’t type fast enough, my fingers flew across the keyboard like lightning.  As I wrote I told myself this was the one that was going to take me to the top. Three hours later I hade several chapters done and sleep was calling. I saved the document then staggered off to bed. Despite being dog tired, I was hyped up about the epic novel I had just started. For the first time in days, I slept like a baby.

I should have stayed asleep.

Excited, I woke, ran to my laptop even before having breakfast and opened the document. I stared at the screen, blinking as if that would change what I saw before me. Nope, nothing changed. It was still crap.  There wasn’t a single sentence in the five chapters that made sense. I kid you not. Picture yourself, eyes closed, typing away. Now open your eyes. How well did you do? Probably better than I did while sleep deprived. My sentences looked similar to this:

Asdjoiefn gruhlasd ueoihas sa[ksdnkcfpos

Seriously! Yet in my mind, and in my sleep deprived vision I saw sentences of great writing. Paragraphs that were off the charts.

And do you think I could remember any of the idea when I woke? Nope, not a trickle came to me. How is that possible? People do strange things while sleep deprived. I wrote the greatest crap story ever written. I’ve learned my lesson. If I’m too tired to think, or I’ve gone days with little sleep, I don’t write.

Anyone ever have an experience like mine? What did you do while sleep deprived?

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How Much Reality is Okay to put in Novels?

By Shiela Stewart

How much reality is okay to put in novels? I’ve asked myself that a lot. I worry about copyright laws or even stepping on someone’s toes.  Most authors tend to have some reality in their books, mostly taken from an experience in their life, a moment that just sticks out and begs to be written. But what about seeing something on TV and building on it? I hear it all the time. “I could write a better story than that piece of crap” Sometimes watching a movie, or a TV show can spur an idea. That’s fine, as long as you don’t copy it with only changing the names and places.

 But what about real life issues? There have been stories made on fictional people who either died or survived 911. Or a traveler that is late for their flight, misses it, then hears on the news it crashed. Lately I’ve heard rumours that a “Based on Actual Events” movie is in the early stages of planning surrounding the events that unfolded during the Colorado Massacre at the Batman premier. It doesn’t surprise me. It is a heart-breaking story and very compelling.

Now is it okay—say for instance me, a romance author—to make up a character that was in the shooting, who falls in love with a cop who saves her?  Or in less dramatic events, making up a character that is in the 

Olympics and write a story around him/her. How much reality is okay to use in creating a story? Do readers gobble up those types of stories because they know the situation?  Or are they turned off from it? It’s a fine line, I guess, to know what is and isn’t okay to write about. 

What do you think? Leave a comment and one random commenter will win one of Shiela's books from Decadent Publishing! Don't forget to leave your email address!

The Naughty Angel

By Shiela Stewart

Angels and Demons. Heaven and Hell. What makes them so fascinating and why do we want to go to heaven so badly? No, this is not going to be a preachy blog so please don’t turn me off. I’m about to share with you my take on the subject and why I love writing about them.

I do believe in Angels and Demons, but maybe not entirely in the biblical sense. I believe in good and bad. Everyone has good in them, and everyone has bad in them. It’s how we chose to use them that makes us who we are. Some will argue until they’re blue in the face that schizophrenics and people with mental illness are possessed by demons. They’re just not educated in how the brain works. 

But have you ever stopped and looked at those people who lead a normal life, going about a normal existence then one day, they grab a weapon and take out a crowd of people? What made them do that?  Or the straight-laced businessman who for ten years has done his job, always been on time, never caused a problem. Then one day he snaps and trashes his office, then walks up to his boss and stabs him in the heart. Maybe he just snapped. Sure, fine, but would a normal person take a knife or any sharp implement and jab into a guys heart? Had to be evil inside of him for him to do such a thing. 

When we think of angels we see delicate features of a women or child with golden hair wearing a white flowing dress and white feathery wings, gold halo over her head. That’s what we’ve been taught to believe. But what about the person that for no reason at all will pay for the person behind them in the grocery line up without saying a word to the person. Or shovel your walk after a snow storm. What about the person who stops on the side of the road to help someone fix their flat tire, in the middle of a down pour? A good hearted person couldn’t drive by and not stop and help.

Now, let’s talk about the biblical Angels and Demons. God Rules the Heavens and Satan rules Hell. Angels do Gods work and Demons do Satan’s work. Neither has a mind of their own. I often wonder if they get bored with their jobs—if there really are such things. It was that thought that brought on the idea for my latest release, The Naughty Angel. I bring together an angel wanting something different in her life other than being the watcher of children and finds it at Madam Eve’s 1 Night Stand and a Demon looking for his next minion. Both are slaves to their master. Being together is the ultimate sin for both. Yet it is so tempting.

So tell me what you think. Are Angels and Demons real?  Comment and you could be a lucky winner of a brand spanking copy of the new release of The Naughty Angel just released.

Shiela Stewart www.shielasbooks.ca
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