So, like most people, I like having pictures of people when reading stories. I've been considering incorporating a picture into my story, but when looking for something suitable, I run into the problem that if I do grab a random picture from online, it runs the risk of being someone 'real', if that makes sense. I'm not grabbing porn pictures, just literally images of what I imagine a person to look like. What are people's thoughts on this, on including pictures of people?
I am on the completly different side of the spectrum. Pictures for people, or even armour/clothes for that matter, that do not show a real person OR are part of a Fan-Fiktion are completly unnecessary imho. If you give the reader a picture you take away his agency to imagine the person as he prefers. Of course one shouldn't keep their character description to broad either but loosing yourself in a specific vision goes against immersion. At least in my view. As such, as a reader and a writer, the only pictures i except in stories are maps of places. A picture shows a fixed version and that defeats the point of imagination. Again, my opinion.
Think of it as watchingv the Game of Thrones tv series first before reading the books rather than reading the novels first. Your picture of what the characters look like would be influenced by the show instead of letting the author's words fuel your imagination.
I get that. Having a picture to support imagination is fine if you are into that but i'd rather have none and let my own mind define what i find 'beautiful' what i define as 'big breasts' or a 'muscular broad man' without any visual input. The second i picked up GoT (And i watched the series first) i never once wanted to see the characters as they were in the series, and i never did. I am the weirdo on this one and i can live with that.
Hmm, that's quite an interesting perspective, and I suppose it would bypass the moral issue I have with grabbing random pictures of people who might not appreciate it if they ever found out. Thanks guys, I think I'll go with your advice and stick with just description!
I do not like pictures in stories here... I think much of the feel of a story depends on what kind of images the writer has in his/her head and what kind of other porn they imagine while writing. There are lots of stories on this site that have the feel of a standard US/European porno flick, others feel like extensions of semi-pornographic western comics art (think Frank Frazetta, Milo Manara, Crepax or Serpieri) and others feel like Japanese porno manga/anime/Visual Novels and some are primarily inspired by other works of erotic literature. Because of this, I feel images would give away too much of how a writer sees their work, which might turn off some readers. For example, when writing my story ( https://chyoa.com/story/Family-Succubus.9512 ) I tend to imagine Japanese manga-type characters, but I´m certain if I stuck a big ol´ weeaboo anime picture at the top, some people would have a harder time enjoying the story, just as I´ve been turned off by some stories, which stick what´s obviously just a photo from some cheapo porno or camshow in the middle of the text, to tell me how to imagine stuff I can imagine way hotter by myself... Maybe I´m just weird, but I think that no woman can compete with what one can come up with onesself. The only way I can see pictures working would be if if they were made specifically for the story. ...But they´d have to be actually good and hot, which is not exactly easy...
The only time I've used pictures to illustrate the characters was for my story, The Lust Doctor, which is inspired by a CGI hentai series made by Umemaro. In the List of Characters page I use the pictures of the female characters from the animated series so I don't have to describe the minute details of their appearances.
I put models at the beginnings at a number of my stories. I like them, I don't know if others do, but I don't like putting in elaborate descriptions of my main characters so it seemed like a good idea at the time.
This is why I liked my main character so much I thought I could just describe her once and then just hint at additional things and information in the following stories. Having said that I do like pictures but only for the cover that pretty much details my girl for that story.
