How do you feel about sexually explicit GIFs and Pictures in stories?

I read about as much as I write on CHYOA and one major turn-off for me is when a story frequently uses GIFs or pictures to further illustrate sex scenes.

I get it, you want to have a visual aide to better communicate what happens within the scene. But I always feel like it takes my agency away and it becomes harder to just imagine the scene in my head, which to me is a lot more fun.

Granted, I’m a little biased since I came to CHYOA mainly as a way to combat my porn addiction, which also makes it extra frustrating when I’m subjected to porn without warning.

Am I alone in this frustration or does anyone else agree or have other problems with this sort of thing?

 

I often feel that when I'm writing, I leave a little too much to reader's imagination, and I often struggle with knowing which details add to a story and which ones don't. BUT the part of my story I'm thinking of isn't a sex scene, so that doesn't quite count.

I think it really depends on quality and quantity. If it's just basic porn, and especially if the character/actions in the GIF don't line up with what the dialouge/character descriptions are telling me is going on, it could ruin the immersion. But if the GIF/image in question fits perfectly with what the author wrote, or manages to add to the scene, then there's not exactly a problem.

Of course, if the images take up more space than the narration/dialouge, I think the chapter was written wrong (unless it's one of those stories that are structured as a comic book).

Keep in mind this is literary art we're talking about. As long as it's well-written, images and GIFs aren't exactly a concern. Also keep in mind that if a story isn't to your liking, there are over 1,000,000 others on this site you could read. You are not obligated to look at something you don't want to.

 

They can be a bit of a crutch, but there's nothing particularly wrong with using crutches.

Personally, I find that when I take inspiration from a really hot porn scene in my stories, it rarely comes out right. Things in porn have to look good, which is not the same as feeling good, or being an enjoyable experience. Literary erotica cares far more about the characters' thoughts and feelings than about the mechanics of sex.

This is also why you don't have to describe in excruciating detail what your characters look like. It's... just not really that important? You're writing text, not making a painting. Your readers are not only perfectly capable of filling in the details themselves, they like doing it! (And at the start of your story, you should emphatically not start with 4 paragraphs of bone-dry descriptions. "James is 18 years old. He has brown hair, wears baggy clothes, and hates math. His older sister Becky is..." Urghhhhhhhh!)

As for readers, you could use an ad blocker to hide all images in stories. uBlock Origin for example has a 'My Filters' pane in its settings. Add the following to hide all images in stories:

Code:

chyoa.com##.chapter-content img

If you also want the cover image hidden, use this:

Code:

chyoa.com##.chapter img

 

Thanks this is actually really helpful! You’re a lifesaver! ❤️

 

Happy to help! Addiction sucks.

 

Indeed it does.

 

I like pictures but I feel that they should be there essentially for decoration. In other words, the story has to work perfectly well without them.

Without blowing my own horn TOO much, I'd like to think I've used them successfully in my story "It's Good to Be the King." In that story, I have an option right off the first chapter where one can see images of most of the female characters in the story (the men, I leave to the imagination). I've used pornstars as my models, as I figure they don't mind having people masturbate to their pictures; it's kind of what they do for a living. There are also photo illustrations throughout the story; some are sexually explicit, some are not.

I found that the pictures would provide inspiration during the writing process. For example, I had a photo set of a character in which the model was depicted wielding a sword in combat, and it led to a scene I likely wouldn't have thought of otherwise because I felt like I just HAD to use it. I had another photo set in which the same woman was depicted in a dungeon in chains - again, I had not planned to include such a scene, but with the picture available I couldn't ignore it. Both scenes led to a better story than I might have written without them. Of course, I could have written those same scenes WITHOUT including the pictures in the story at all; they could have just served as inspiration to me. But since I had them, I figured, why the hell not use them?

Another little bonus is that using illustrations has given me the chance to stretch my Photoshop skills. For example, I had a part in the story where I wanted to show a character a bit MORE clothed than she was in the picture, and after about 30 minutes in Photoshop I had (to my mind) successfully covered her up to make it work for that moment in the story. In another scene, I needed a picture of a woman with a single teardrop going down her face, and it took some doing but I feel like I pulled it off.

 

As a writer who can't draw, I find the written word what works best for me to get my idea out of my head. However, I can't deny that graphic novels and caption images are mediums I've consumed and work well for telling a story similar to how a movie can. However, I find that words and details are easier to explore nuances and focus the audience's attention at specific happenings or ideas.

I find tossing in an image that is only slightly related to your story or shifting your story entirely to match an image a little jarring if not out right disengenious.

I myself have used images to augment my stories especially when revealing my main character and a particular outfit. I have paid artists in the past to generate artwork for me, but when I'm volunteering and publishing my work for free, I can't justify paying others for everytime I'd like a visualization. On my last episode, I did dive into the realm of AI images to create fine tuned illustrations based on my direction for key scenes I was after. However, I would feel extremely conflicted to use this in a for-profit endeavor. But as tools grow, I'd be hard pressed to afford a human artist to get the image quality I was after without some sort of guarantee they weren't using AI, so that gets into a whole other ethical delima. Because of that, I usually shy away from images.

What I absolutely loathe is people going out and farming or manufacturing images en masse as a 'prompt' for others to write words for them. This to me is one step above trolling and a lazy excuse to try to justify plagiarizing someone else's idea, warping it just a touch, and calling it your own unique creation, then corrupting someone else to do the work for you.

In short, images are good if they add to the story, but are distracting or repulsive if they're placed in just to garner views.

 

I'm a visual person, and anyone who reads my stuff knows I like pics. Sometimes I think photos do a better job than my words can.

 

It depends. Illustrations can add a lot to the story. What I hate is random porno gifs\photos of obliviously different women to illustrate a pose or a scene or an attire. If a story does that - I leave immediately.

 

If you want to hide images, you could also use a browser add-on to manipulate CSS.
(That could also be used to create your own coloring scheme for the site, bigger fonts, and so on.)

 

I think people already hammered this idea into the ground, but I was reading a story last night and clicked off because of the use of imagery. I mean, personally, I was more against the AI of the images rather than the images themselves, but regardless I found them not only to barely fit what the story was doing, but it seemed like it was used to pad the page length as well. I’m sure imagery in erotica is some people’s cup of tea, but I don’t much care for it in the middle of two paragraphs.

Now, on the other hand, I like stories where they have a chapter of “character bios” or the like where maybe they have photo-refs or something. I’d like to eventually have those for my story, once I am financially comfortable to commission artists for it. I think drawings would be more interesting than models, simply due to the nature of my story.

I guess my tl;dr would be: I don’t think it should be used for padding or be an interruption to the reader, but optional imagery to give to the reader is cool.

 

AI images is a growing problem. I do not care what kind of a tool someone uses for their artistic impression. But I can't tolerate laziness and lack of taste. If I see that someone did a 5-second "work" and didn't even bother to generate a few dozen of images and choose decent ones, why exactly should I consume their content?

Same goes for lazy Photoshops, like "fake celebs" but those are more rare nowadays.

 

Nah, you’re not alone. GIFs and pics in stories can feel like someone’s hijacking your imagination, kinda ruins the vibe. Plus, unexpected visuals can be jarring, especially if you’re not looking for that. Text alone lets your mind do the work, which is way more fun (and personal). Less is more, honestly.

 

I've said this before in another thread, but for me the problem with pictures is that I approached written pornography not from video porn, but from Hentai. My characters are not photorealistic people, rather they are idealized pictures. I prefer to imagine the stuff I read and write not as a movie, but as a comic or piece of animation.
If I'm imagining a sexy character and the picture shows me some generic porn star with an unconvincing expression of desire on her face, I'm just out. I can imagine that people coming from Western comics or live-action movies would be similarly taken out if drawings were used.

Similarly, if you go the opposite route and extensively use drawings to illustrate your story, it can work, but if I don't like the art, or if the art doesn't match how I was imagining the scene (I was imagining art by Asanagi, but this is clearly Yamatogawa! I've been diddled!) I'm taken out again, especially if the illustrations don't have a consistent, unified style/theme. Plus, if I recognize the artist or characters, I find it hard to suspend my cultural recognition, like "that's not Megyn, the nameless protagonist's mind-controlled step-sister, that's clearly Rias Gremory from Highschool DxD!"

AI images can work (putting aside a general distaste towards AI) since they are both """""""""original""""""""" and stylistically consistent enough to not distract, but even there, stylistic mismatches with my own imagination become a problem. Plus, they feel cheap, like using the Papyrus font or having "Unregistered HyperCam 2" in the corner. I'm much more likely to ask myself "Hang on, am I crankin' it to slop?" if I see AI art.

Really, the best course of action is to draw or commission a handful of your own illustrations, which I admit is up there with "Have you tried making more money?" and "Just draw the rest of the fucking owl" in terms of advice...

 

Yeah, it’s a tricky balance! Everyone’s imagination works differently, and visuals can either enhance or totally derail the experience depending on how they align with your mental image. AI art is a decent stopgap, but it can feel impersonal or cheap, and custom illustrations are ideal but not always realistic. Honestly, sometimes no visuals might be the way to go just let the mind do the heavy lifting!

 

I think that illustrations that match the quality, style and genre of a story will be welcomed by most people, even those who prefer text to visuals.

But it isn't what we usually see. It baffles me when a decently written story uses mismatched porn screenshots, random hentai images, bad Photoshop or a very lazy 5-second 7-finger AI generation... Like... you did put effort into writing, why can't you put some effort into illustrations? Why do you devalue your own story?

 

Totally agree! Good illustrations that match the story’s vibe can really elevate the experience. But yeah, mismatched or low-effort visuals can totally pull you out of the moment. It’s like, you put all this work into writing—why not give the visuals the same love? Quality over quantity, always!

 

I got a bit whacky and did mine in rendered 3D, then went "hey, if I can do this in 3D as a still I can make it an animation", which was an absolute stroke of genius...then realized that CHYOA doesn't support most formats other than GIFs which eat some of the video quality because of the limited colors they have. RIP.

Surprisingly, it actually worked pretty well because the usual problem with a GIF is that it's a laggy motherfucker, but since you're pairing it with a written text that should take people a bit to get through you buy time for the content to load so long as you don't go overboard. I'd love it if imgbox videos work (maybe they do? I need to do some testing sometime) or modern formats like html5 since they'd be lightweight with a higher frame rate and better quality than a gif, but gotta deal with the hand we've been dealt.

 

I use 3D art to generate pictures of my characters and to be honest one of the reasons is it's a lot easier than lengthy descriptions of them. I also use them for the sex scenes for about the same reason, the actual sex itself is probably the least interesting aspect of the story, what's going on in the minds of the participants is much more satisfying. That and the actual sex itself is usually boring. Seriously. Even in porn it's probably the least interesting part of the clip. Particularly oral sex which is what is going on 90% of the time, likely because the actual sex act itself takes around 20 seconds.

In any case I use pictures sparingly in text stories, usually only one per chapter except for the ones where sex is actually occurring for 20 seconds, then I throw in a couple of extras, because you really don't want to have to read my description of it