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Too Detached From Reality

@dream-mancer / dream-mancer.tumblr.com

I write stuff. I'll reblog anything that catches my fancy. SO to Jacy and SBM to echo.
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Writing Advice: How to Create Conflict when Your Characters are Competent.

Featuring Leverage, the ultimate in Competency Porn.

  • Make them so good it gets them in trouble. So you've got a hacker and he's the best, definitively. Okay, well, one of his fake IDs just got called for jury duty. You pretended to be a psychic so well, someone kidnapped you to talk to a dead crime lord.
  • Make them targets. You're so good, enemies you didn't even know about are trying to kill you just so they won't have to take you on in your element. You're being blackmailed into doing a thing because you're the only one that can.
  • Limit the scope of competency. Sure, you're competent as a fighter, but your hacker is in jail and now you have to do his job and you are not competent in that. Yeah, you can climb a building, but do you know what you need to do to not end up in a crevasse while climbing a mountain?
  • Raise the stakes. Can you handle extracting a orphan being used by a washed up actress to fund her extravagant lifestyle? Yes. But can you handle extracting 30 orphans being used by the Slovenian mob to fund gunrunning? Maybe all you wanted was to get enough money to buy back a house, but instead you have to ruin the company so that all houses they illegally obtained are returned to their rightful owners.
  • Make others competent, too. Your characters are the best, but are they the best of the best? If you take you enemy down, do you go, too? If you win, does it make them win? Does it get out of hand and make other people start noticing when you're trying to keep your head down? Do they know every trick in the book and know the next move before you make it?
  • Make others painfully incompetent. Your characters are the best, but are they woefully unprepared for people who are not even good? Can your hologram hacker roll with it when the vital information is on a casset tape? Is the old mentor up to date on the recent technology, or is he going to screw you because he assumes the cops are just as corrupt/incompetent as when he was young?
  • Have some standards. Specifically, morals that make it impossible for your characters to back out or gets them in trouble for doing things "off-script." You can't leave on the train someone just stole for you because you've got to go back and stop the bad guys from bombing the IRS (even if we don't like them). You wish you could just say no to that assassin contract and leave, but someone's getting assassinated and you have to stop it because you're a good guy.
  • Bring up the past. Do you think that bad guy you brutally scarred a decade ago is going to carry a grudge? Do you have to save your ex-wife from the bad guy, who may also be her boyfriend, and if you suggest that she'll shut you out and you won't be able to save her or get paid? It's Draaamaaaa, babee.
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juiche

I wanted to draw the winter soldier for years but never dared to, I thought I’d definitely mess it up. Late to the party as always, but I finally dared to do it 😊

This one is based on a photo that Sebastian Stan took by chance prior to the Civil War film, having no idea what’s about to come :> I thought it’s wonderfully angsty 😌💅

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reblogged
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jacyevans

@dream-mancer and I are about to embark on our fifth major re-write of our epic Supernatural/Teen Wolf crossover. I THINK THIS IS THE ONE, GUYS.

Keep your fingers crossed, because I REALLY like this one so far. It’s the most excited I’ve been about our fic in a long time.

MAYBE WE’LL FINISH THIS SOME DAY. WHO KNOWS?

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dream-mancer

ONE POINT SEVEN MILLION WORDS. ALMOST THREE YEARS OF WRITING. AND WE’RE STARTING OVER. FOR THE FIFTH TIME. WHY.

TEN. YEARS. LATER.

We’re on draft seven. Probably eight, if we’re honest. Nearly three million words. We have an AU. We also have an AU of the AU. And a sexytimes BDSM AU. Fuck our lives, dude.

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So. Hi. I’m alive. I’ll respond to messages and comments on AO3…someday. Superheroes is still going strong. I’ve made great headway into the next chapter and have even started on the sequel. FML.

But life hit hard. Finances have been extremely tight. Health insurance sucks and I can’t get medications or adaptive aids I need. There were shake-ups at work and my case load increased with no warning with no raise. Healthcare doesn’t pay shit, y’all.

And to top it all off, my parents’ health is declining. A lot. I’m an only child and it’s been rough, especially since I live five hours away. It’s been really tough. And just two weeks ago, my favorite aunt - FAVORITE - passed suddenly. That’s just kicked my depression all over the damn place.

So. I’m alive. Thanks for the concerns. If something serious happened, you would see it on @jacyevans or @spankerella’s tumblrs. Feel free to bug them. Maybe they can poke me into writing.

Love you all.

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I might be a bit predictable…and a teeny, tiny bit violent. https://www.instagram.com/p/Co572HbOefTROPBuAxDVr6fU81f3MyvET1Eurs0/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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reblogged

the role of the person in the passenger seat is not only navigator but secretary as well. you have to type up the drivers messages to random ladies on facebook about cbd cream & google whether that billy joel song was the theme song for that show or not

you also have to provide a henchmans disdainful scowl at whoever the driver is flipping off in the target parking lot

other assorted roles may include

  • retrieval team for objects in the backseat
  • custodian of the parking garage tickets
  • "All clear my way"
  • en-route dining concierge
  • announcing "Horses!" when there are horses
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lynx-girl

Don't forget the Tommy Gun

You should never forget the Tommy Gun

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spankerella

Driver picks the music; shotgun ironically packs the Tommy Gun.

You must also be ready to honk the driver's horn for them in the event they are not as quick to anger on the road as you. I have done this. More than once. Ask @dream-mancer.

If you are a backseat driver, you must be ready to dive across the backseat and flip a double bird out the window at the semi who cut your party off after you pass them. All of this while shouting "window" and your driver instinctively knowing what you are doing because of that. But also because they know you and know you almost always wake up and choose violence or chaos.

I really am so much fun in the car.

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dream-mancer

This is very true. I had child locks engaged in my Expedition (I don’t have kids; I have crazy friends) and a yellow Penske truck decided my big ass white SUV didn’t exist in his reality while going 70mph in Dallas traffic. She was on the driver side and I passed on his left. When she says she dove across, she DOVE. Legit climbed over other passengers to do so.

And yes, she has also honked my horn for me. To be fair, it hasn’t happened since I moved to Texas.

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When instead of a traditional thanksgiving potluck, your boss takes you to a day of Dave and Busters. (at Dave & Buster's) https://www.instagram.com/p/ClEjZxhuuJD_wIViQWEIvhw4lsZOKBswpE6pWo0/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Chilly but peaceful (at The Beach on North Padre Island) https://www.instagram.com/p/Ck6zsCoOAn1VV7TAjcc3e4bByjHuv2LkgjIC-Y0/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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