What's your view on images in stories?

Might be worth copying your image into imgbox then posting a link to it there. That way its not at the mercy of the site you're linking to whether they keep the image there,

 

I find that I enjoy using images, and if they are well-chosen they can enhance a story. However, I think it's important not to rely on pictures; the story should be written such that the reader could follow and enjoy it if the pics weren't there.

They've also helped me in writing. For example, the story I've been working on most is "It's Good to be the King" and I have included a great many pictures. For this story, I had to use pictures with a medieval theme (not truly realistic, as the women have shaved legs and are all wearing makeup even if they're of the peasant class and not nobility, but I didn't care to search the internet for accurate pictures of women from the 1400s!). This narrowed the field a lot when it came to what I had to choose from, and as a result I had to model my characters accordingly. I admit that, left to my own devices, I would tend to describe women as almost exclusively voluptuous with curvy figures and generous busts, but that wouldn't match the photos so I was forced to be a little more diverse!

I also got some story ideas from them. One picture set included a woman who engaged in sword combat, and of course I just had to include that one, and the result was a very powerful scene which I likely wouldn't have come up with on my own. That same model also featured in a picture set where she was imprisoned in a dungeon, and once again it seemed a waste of good material not to use it. This also produced a scene I normally wouldn't have written.

Finally, I find that it's helped me to improve my Photoshop skills. I had one place where I had to show the woman crying a single tear, as it was important to the story but of course such a picture wasn't available, so I added a tear to an existing photo. I also had to make use of a another picture where I actually had to have the model clothed rather than partly nude (that one's not very convincing once one knows that it's altered, but I think it looks good enough in passing). Some which were rather fun were pictures meant to represent dreams or visions, and for those I stacked up filters and brushed backgrounds until I found the right surreal quality.

In the end, the story matters a lot more than the illustrations. A bad story with good pictures is still a bad story.

 

Cute art there, thank you for the credit so I could find Nick Farie. https://twitter.com/Nick_Farieart

 

I've been musing on whether I should do or commission portraits for some of my characters in Lusty Magical Academy.

The fraught young lesbian witch dynamic between Morgan Woodbine and Fay Applebum is making me want to see some portraits, poses, or candids just for the looks on their faces.

For the most part I don't think much about images in Chyoa stories.

 

When I was new here in 2016, I thought that adding images is a great way to enhance your story.

But unless you are an artist and are able to draw / create those images yourself, or have the money to commission one, you are limited to pictures you find on the internet.

At first, I spent countless hours on google image search, trying to find (porn-)pictures that match my characters. Even did spend more time looking for images than actually writing chapters. The problem of course: Those pictures never really completely match your characters and especially not the scene you're describing them in. One way to get around that is to look for the images first and to only afterwards write the story. To create chapters / story lines which exactly match these images. But I don't think that is usually the way it goes.

I soon realized that I really do not like it when images are used that do not match or only partially match the descriptions in the story. Or if there is a mismatch between two pictures., For example when one redhead is supposed to be that story character and only a few chapters later an image with a different woman is used for that same character, just because she is a naked woman who also happens to be a redhead.

Still, I do enjoy images ;-) Last year I even started a story, which is not the usual Chyoa story, but a place to show off images I edited myself. The theme is 'celebrity' + 'breast expansion', and it has chapters showing off that image, with a few sentences (i.e. like a caption) or sometimes as much as a few A4 pages of short story added to it. But the reception has been imho pretty underwhelming. Either those themes are not well liked. Perhaps the execution of my idea sucks. Or Chyoa readers actually visit the site to read stories and not to view images. ;-)

 

Well considering I do write a lot of fanfiction stories like with Video Game, Cartoon, Book ENP, images can definitely help. When I use an image that is from a deviantart or tumblr I always try to provide the source link because credit is important. Outside of providing character images I don’t really use images with some very rare exceptions in my stories.

 

If you're talking about my signature image, that was actually done by my first artist, Mr. Poritan: https://twitter.com/pori_tan_?lang=en

If you guys like Nick's art, be sure to check out the game him and I made together: "Time-Stop RPG"!

 

Ah, thank you for the correction and the pointer to Mr. Poritan!

 

I've used them on rare occasions. Usually when I give up after failing to figure out out how to properly describe an outfit.

I don't mind them.

 

I like a good image as a header to begin the story, but I haven't found too many stories that included images without feeling like the narrative was forced to fit the picture.

^^ This kind of thing gives me pause TBH. I don't know the context of the image, but it looks like just two random women exercising in the park. I'd feel weird about dropping that image into an erotic story. If it's a woman who's modeling nude, sure, that's what she's there for. But this isn't for me.

 

I don't use a lot of images. I usually try to avoid them unless I really want the reader to see the character as I do. Most often I'll leave this to their own imagination as it lends to better immersion for the reader. I still don't insert actual images just hyperlinks to photos so they can look if they want to.