What's your view on images in stories?

Do you like them? Hate them? Don't care?

Should they be directly embedded or hyperlinks, or should they not be used at all?

Would be interesting to see what people think.

 

I don't mind them, but I gravitate towards not using them because most novels and short stories don't use them, so in a way it feels slightly amateurish. That said, I did ask some of my readers in one story if they wanted pictures, and most of them said they did. I haven't added the pictures to that story yet, but I intend to source them and add them later, but I think it depends a lot on genre and types of reader.

I did add some pictures on one fantasy story I have when I was doing a character page, and directly embedding seems like the way to go, but I had to read up about how to do it in the guidelines to make sure I was doing it right.

 

Anyone who follows me knows I love them.
I think they can add a lot to stories like these.
Sometimes the links break after a while for older posts.

 

I would not include pictures in my texts. When reading, everyone automatically has their own pictures in mind. Images copied from somewhere can never achieve that. They rather disturb me when I see them in texts on Chyoa.

 

There are two times I can think of I like pictures in a story:
1. Art created specifically for the story, especially by the creator, because then it all feels like a single comprehensive work.
2. Especially when reading fan fiction, I like a simple description of the character accompanied by a hyperlink to a full picture to see the little details.

Just my preference, but if I click into a story and see a photo, I immediately bounce. I think that's just me, but I often construct my mental image reading a story with an animated aesthetic, even if the setting is very realistic, so if I'm presented with a photo I cringe and can't continue. Note: this may be waived if the only photo is a cover image. Usually I can power through that if the story concept is interesting enough.

I don't know if this is a common thing... I imagine there are some people who feel the opposite way and won't check out a story with cartoon or anime art. So, I don't suggest taking it as general advice in your own story, but I thought I ought to mention since it's relevant.

 

I don't mind them but have only added one to a story I wrote. I think cover images are good but haven't seen a good reason to add one to a chapter myself. I'm sure others love them though because I see it a lot

 

Images depicting characters are usually a dealbreaker for me though a cover image is fine. (Floor plans, game boards, or sth similar is fine as well.)

I like graphic descriptions and I feel that images are often used as a substitute for description. (I guess there are fanfictions that don't use images nor description as they just assume that you're familiar with the canon material.)


I don't mind character pages with images as they might help other authors to base their descriptions on the same thing without confusing the readers. (But this doesn't have to be in a public chapter.)

On the other hand, character pages often show clothed persons and if the character is young, there's the risk of having a picture with a person who was underage when the picture was taken. (E.g. actors of the HP movies.) Creating a connection with the person and the story can then be seen as sexualizing minors.

 

When I read I'm usually repulsed by overly explicit photos, though if it's more along the lines of aesthetic erotic art and avoids showing the face, it's less so off putting and I can even appreciate it.

I also appreciate being art from the author, or perhaps art made especially for the story since I see it as a part of the story telling, though with preference showing a specific scene rather than a character portrait.

Otherwise, if the artwork is well made with the coccus on more abstract things such as the environment the story is playing out in or some panorama fantasy setting. That's a bonus.

That said, I've used pictures twice in chapters I wrote in someone else's stories. Mainly when I introduced a new monster/crutures, just to give an idea of what it may look like.

In my own story used a pictures a lot more liberally. Perhaps a little too much. In some cases I've even removed some when I felt like it was disrupting my own reading experience. I do it partially because it was the pictures that inspired the story in the fist place, and partially because it's on a subject matter I expect most people aren't familiar with so having a picture may help visualising it.

I've been thinking of sticking them at the bottom of the chapter instead of the top, just so that it will be less disruptive to the readers while still being available for those who might appreciate it.

 

I've tried it a few times, and while I think there's potential value in the combination of words and text to tell a richer story and craft a fuller experience than either alone, I haven't the skill to really do it properly.

 

There are a lot of different contexts for images in stories, and there's no catch-all answer for whether they're useful or not.

One case I fully support is using diagrams or illustrations for things like puzzles and floorplans. I remember seeing these a lot in the children's books Deltora Quest. There's not really any benefit to describing something in prose when the point is for the reader to understand something as precisely as possible, rather than letting their own imagination influence the imagery. Obviously, this doesn't come up very often in erotica, but I used it once for a visual puzzle in Darkest Challenges. That's about the only time I've ever used images, actually.

Art that's directly related to the story - either commissioned or made by the author - is acceptable to me, since it fits the author's original intention. If the images aren't thematically integral to the story, I think they should only appear once every few chapters, like special scenes in a visual novel. Otherwise, you risk bombarding the reader with your own ideas of what characters and environments are supposed to look like. This also applies to photography, but real-life images are much harder to consistently use in a story, since you need the same models and, chances are, you won't find images that match the scene you're trying to describe.

Using images as substitutes for descriptions (except in fanfic) kind of defeats the purpose of erotica. The whole point of reading porn, instead of seeing it, is to let your imagination cater the porn to match your personal tastes. Attraction is far from objective. Inserting a photo of a model that you find beautiful will end up turning away anyone that disagrees. Writing that they're beautiful, with a few distinct features that may or may not appeal to your audience, is better since there's always room for the reader to mentally fill in the blanks. Take, for example, "She was gorgeous, with large breasts, a round face and long legs." Even if you don't particularly like any of those traits, you can probably still envision a way for a woman to be attractive and have those traits. Being forced to accept a particular image means you don't get a choice.

 

Hey, wow, that's the first time I've ever seen anybody else mention those books! They were a huge favourite as mine as a kid, and I only recently found out that it wasn't as known worldwide as it was in Australia. Also, I'm in agreement with the rest of the stuff you wrote there too.

 

I loved basically all of Emily Rodda's books, even as I grew older. I Googled her recently to find out what she was up to nowadays. As it turns out, Emily Rodda is not actually a real person. Strange, but fitting.

 

experiment:
Which do you prefer:
John came across two women jogging in the park. One had thick, tight curls down to her shoulders. She had slender but toned build, a pretty face, and nice perky tits. The other had a similar build, but was a bit shorter, also pretty with light brown hair in bangs and a pony tail.
The woman with the curly hair wore orange jogging shorts and black tank top over a sports bra, and her friend had on knee-length jogging pants and a pink tank top over a gray sports bra.
Or
See next post

 

John came across two women jogging in the park. One had thick, tight curls down to her shoulders. She had slender but toned build, a pretty face, and nice perky tits. The other had a similar build, but was a bit shorter, also pretty with light brown hair in bangs and a pony tail.
The woman with the curly hair wore orange jogging shorts and black tank top over a sports bra, and her friend had on knee-length jogging pants and a pink tank top over a gray sports bra.

 

I never put images in chapters, I do only one title image and that's it.

Here is the reason for it: people most of the times read and touch themselves at the same time (Don' judge me if you don't), and when they masturbate, they have their own imagination and their own preference of how the sex plays out or how the female character looks like. If you put an image there that doesn't really match the reader's expectation, it kinds of ruins their little theater within their mind. It ruins mine when I read chapters with huge images inserted between paragraphs with men I am not attracted to .We writers do the writing, it's better we leave the rest to the audience. That's my opinion.

 

This is all really interesting feedback, thanks guys.

I feel like a healthy compromise is hyperlinking images but not embedding them directly?

Although I would say that because that's what I do.

 

I'd personally prefer the first. Those little details not mentioned in the text are normally left to me to imagine. In the second those things are all filled in by the picture and prevent me from personalizing things a bit.

Maybe that sounds weird or silly to others but it's the way my mind works.

 

I guess I'm more visual. I have a certain idea of what someone looks like that I want to convey, and to me, the photo just adds to it so the reader can see what I want him/her to see.

 

It can depend, really. My Idol Sister story has a specific main girl and I'm writing it with her in mind, so I use (hyperlinked) pictures. But if it were a more general story I guess I wouldn't.

 

Could you link your stuff btw? I'd like to see it.