Young Writers Society

OKAY. First of all, I want to preface this by saying that real artists are amazing. More amazing, in fact, than what AI can do. So this post is not meant in any way to detract from actual artists! Frankly, AI has so many limitations that I frequently want to stab my eyes out using t. Like, sometimes I'll write things like, "The girl is holding a sword while the boy stands next to her" and then EVERYONE WILL BE HOLDING SWORDS and worse the whole place will be COVERED IN SWORDS, and I'm like, "REALLY??? DID I STUTTER???"

Real artists are not that stupid. Giving AI artistic prompts is usually a frustrating mess, haha.

So if you're a real artist and you hate AI art generators, I want to assure you that I am with you fully. I hate them too.

Still, with that said... AI generators are still better than anything I can draw. And sometimes I have a scene in my head that I think would look SO COOL in my mind and I want to see it as art... but also my visual imagination is not really... a thing. Like, seriously, I wrote an entire novel out of the perspective of a blind man just to avoid visual descriptions just because of how bad my visual imagination is. So, I'll want to see the scene, but also, I can't because my imagination is not wired for that.

Enter: AI art generators.

They can convert my writing, which is generally pretty good, and turn it into something visual that I can imagine. Then I can describe it better. And also, I can share the art too, since it looks awesome.

But also. AI image generators are awful to use, lol.

So... here's a quick tutorial.

1. What AI Art Creator do you use?

I prefer Bing's art creator that is powered by DALL-E 3.0. It is free and you can put in as many prompts as you want... though it will only give you 15 free prompts per day with quick generation. You can have unlimited free slow generation! Each slow generation will take several minutes, most likely.

Also, this art creator is linked with Microsoft Designer, which can take away the random things that AI sometimes sticks in. Which is useful! This is free as well. It is limited... it won't change colors or move things and sometimes it can't erase the thing you want it to erase without destroying the image. Still, it's useful!

Link: https://www.bing.com/images/create


2. How do you write the text?

WELL. First I look at my scene and try to take out all the information of the setting that I can. Usually, I like to integrate the setting and the description into the narrative. So read through the narrative and take out everything that is important to the setting and try to condense it into a quick little summary. So, for example, I'll spare you in posting an entire chapter but...

In one of the scenes in my book, my main character is recuperating in a tiny log cabin. There is a White Swan who is transformed into a human who is taking care of him. Inside the tiny log cabin, there is a window right next to my main character that he likes to look out of when he's propped up with pillows. He is ill and often covered in colorful knitted blankets. There's also a fireplace and a rocking chair that the White Swan likes to sit on. The White Swan is a nervous fellow and doesn't really look at the main character.

BOOM.

But this is too long for the AI to handle and the AI art generator is too stupid to understand what this means. Like... what does a White Swan who is turned into a human even look like? What does the main character look like? It doesn't know!

Also, it has no idea what style that you want. I like watercolors, so I ask for abstract watercolors because that makes it kind of dreamy if there's any speculation. You can ask for oil paints, digital art, anime, fantasy art... you do you!

So you're going to have to describe the characters. Then, you generate and generate until it starts to look right.

...and because AI is stupid, this might take a bunch of generations, haha.

So, for example, I used this as my AI description:

In a log cabin at night, a man with pale hair and blue eyes wearing a silver tunic and a white feather cloak sits on a rocking chair with a glowing lantern nearby. He glances worriedly at a sleeping young man with brown hair covered in colorful knit blankets that are tucked in at his chin sleeping on a narrow bed beside him. abstract watercolors.

3. SO MANY REGENERATIONS

So... these were some of the things I got.







So, not all were winners! But I got some that I sort of liked...









...somewhere during this I realized that I made several mistakes. The window should look out to a forest. Also, there's a fireplace, not a lantern. So I adjusted the wording...

In a log cabin in the forest at night, a man with pale hair and blue eyes wearing a silver tunic and a white feather cloak sits on a rocking chair near a fireplace. He glances worriedly across the room at a sleeping young man with brown hair covered in colorful knit blankets that are tucked in at his chin sleeping on a narrow bed beside him. abstract watercolors.

And then, after several tries, I got this...



I really liked it! The layout was correct. The people looked close enough. The major details were correct.

But there were random details that I didn't like in it. So I used Designer to take some of them out...



This would be the sort of picture that I might post on YWS and be happy about, haha.


CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

...anyway, I hope this wasn't too long-winded!

Would I use this to replace an artist? NO. The AI is... okay, but like, an artist will actually be able to do what you want them to do. And, if you wanted to have another scene illustrated, you can have continuity instead of being at the AI's whims. And... people are smarter, thankfully!

But, as a general way to produce okay art that you don't want to harass an artist about and make them revise continuously as you realize you didn't get what you wanted... this is a neat tool to use!

Anyway, now that you know my secrets, why don't you post your own story art over here? Let's see what you can create!

I was literally experimenting with AI today before reading this post.

These are from a story I'm writing called "Shadow of the Orange Tree"


This was my favorite, although the girls as well as the tree are too young and one of them need black hair. Also, they're not supposed to wear the same thing.


I found it funny that before I said they had to be happy, they were always so sad in every single one.