Images can transform your writing experience. The ability to see your characters, settings, and key scenes can unlock new creative pathways and help you overcome blocks in your storytelling. While traditional art requires significant skill or hiring an artist, AI software that generates images from prompts allows any writer to create visuals quickly.
In this article, you’ll learn how to use OpenArt.ai to generate images that complement your fiction writing. You’ll discover how to craft effective prompts, interpret results, and refine your approach to get images that align with your creative vision.
The Basics: Understanding AI Art Generation
AI image generators work by interpreting text descriptions (prompts) and creating images based on patterns they’ve learned from millions of existing artworks and photographs. The key to success lies in how clearly and specifically you describe what you want.
Many fiction writers struggle with visualizing their characters and settings consistently throughout their manuscripts. An AI art tool solves this problem by providing visual references you can keep nearby as you write, ensuring your descriptions remain consistent and vivid.
The better your prompt, the better your results will be. Here are some key principles for creating effective art prompts:
- Be specific about physical details
- Include information about lighting and atmosphere
- Specify the style you want (realistic, painterly, etc.)
- Mention the emotional tone or mood
- Describe the setting or background
Just like with writing prompts for Claude AI, you’ll get better results with clear, detailed descriptions that focus on what you want to see. If you’re unhappy with the images you get the first time, use the same prompt or tweak it to try again until you get an image you can use.
AI Techniques for Image Generation
Let’s look at three techniques for using AI to create visuals for your fiction projects.
Technique 1: Character Portraits
This technique helps you create visual references for your characters.
Try This Prompt:
A professional portrait photograph of a middle-aged woman with short auburn hair, intelligent green eyes, a slight smile, business attire, neutral background, sharp focus, in a realistic style
When using OpenArt.ai, enter this prompt and select an appropriate style model (like “Realistic Vision V1.5”) from the options provided.
The result would be several variations of a professional-looking woman matching your description, such as:
To refine your character portrait, you can add more specific details:
Try This Prompt:
Professional headshot of a confident 45-year-old female CEO with short auburn hair styled in a bob, piercing green eyes, subtle smile, wearing a navy blue blazer over a white blouse, pearl earrings, neutral gray office background, sharp focus, natural lighting, realistic photography style
This more detailed prompt would produce much more specific results, showing the exact age, hairstyle, clothing, and accessories you described. The lighting and background would create a professional atmosphere matching your character’s role. If you’re not pleased with the results the first time, run the prompt again.
This technique works because it:
- Creates consistent visual references for your characters
- Helps you maintain description consistency in your writing
- Makes characters feel more real and three-dimensional
Provides inspiration for additional character details
Technique 2: Setting Visualization
This technique helps you create visual references for your story locations.
Try This Prompt:
A Victorian mansion exterior in the daytime, well-maintained but slightly ominous, warm lights in windows suggesting occupancy, autumn trees, cloudy sky, wide driveway with no cars, realistic photography style
This prompt establishes a baseline for your location, including architectural style, time of day, season, weather, and subtle mood indicators.
To show the same location at a different point in your story, you could use:
Try This Prompt:
The same Victorian mansion exterior but now at night during a storm, lightning illuminating the structure, windows mostly dark except for one attic light, fallen leaves blown across the unkempt lawn, abandoned feeling, no signs of life, horror atmosphere, realistic photography style
This technique works because it:
- Maintains setting consistency while showing changes
- Helps you visualize locations at different story moments
- Creates mood and atmosphere references
- Provides inspiration for descriptive details
Technique 3: Dynamic Scene Composition
This technique helps you visualize key scenes with action and emotion.
Try This Prompt:
A tense confrontation between two characters in a dimly lit cabin living room, fireplace casting shadows, rain visible through windows, one character standing with arms crossed defensively, the other seated but leaning forward intently, mystery thriller atmosphere, cinematic lighting, realistic style
This approach might require experimenting with different AI models or styles to get the right result. You could refine the prompt with more specific details:
Try This Prompt:
A tense confrontation between two people: a tall man standing wearing a dark jacket with arms crossed defensively near the fireplace and a middle-aged woman seated in an armchair but leaning forward intently, inside a rustic cabin living room, fireplace embers casting long shadows, heavy rain visible through windows, single lamp creating uneven lighting, mystery thriller atmosphere, photorealistic style with cinematic composition
This technique works because it:
- Helps you visualize dynamic story moments
- Creates references for emotional tone and character positioning
- Provides inspiration for scene descriptions
Helps maintain consistency in complex scenes
Practical Examples Using AI Art in Your Writing Process
Let’s explore how these techniques might work in practice during your writing process.
Example: Character Development Sequence
Visual references can help track character development throughout your story.
Initial Character State: Professional portrait of a young female journalist, early 20s, long brown hair, determined expression but somewhat timid posture, casual but neat clothing, bright office environment, beginning of career, realistic style
Second Prompt:
Character After Development: Professional portrait of the same female journalist now in her early 40s, same long brown hair but with confident styling, self-assured expression and powerful stance, designer business attire, executive office environment, successful career peak, realistic style
By creating before and after images, you can visualize how your character changes throughout the story while maintaining core identifying features (like the long brown hair).
This approach is particularly helpful for:
- Stories with time jumps
- Character transformation arcs
- Before/after pivotal life events
Maintaining consistency while showing growth
Implementation and Action Items
Here’s how to start using AI art generation to enhance your writing:
- Choose Your Tool:
- Sign up for OpenArt.ai or a similar AI art generation platform
- Familiarize yourself with the different style models available
- Start with a simple project to learn the interface
- Create Character References:
- Begin with your protagonist and other main characters
- Write detailed prompts, including physical attributes, clothing, and expression
- Save the images that best match your vision
- Use these as references while writing
- Develop Setting Visuals:
- Create images of your primary story locations
- Consider different times of day or weather conditions
- Focus on mood and atmosphere
- Keep these references handy when writing scenes in these locations
- Visualize Key Scenes:
- Identify pivotal story moments
- Create dynamic scene compositions
- Focus on emotional tone and character positioning
- Use these images as inspiration when writing these scenes
Success Markers
You know you’re using AI art effectively when:
- The generated images closely match your mental vision
- You feel a stronger connection to your characters and settings
- The images reveal details you hadn’t considered before
- Your written descriptions become more consistent and vivid
- You find inspiration in the visual elements for your writing
- You can reference the images when you’re stuck or need to maintain consistency
Troubleshooting Common Problems
Here are some common challenges with AI art generation and how to solve them:
- Images don’t match your vision:
- Add more specific details to your prompt
- Try different style models or generation settings
- Specify what you don’t want using “no” or “without” in your prompt
- Generate multiple variations and select the closest match
- Characters look inconsistent between images:
- Be very specific about unchanging physical features
- Use the same style model for related images
- Save successful prompts and use them as a base for variations
- Settings look generic:
- Add unique, distinctive details to your prompt
- Include specific architectural features, furniture, or decorations
- Mention the atmosphere and lighting conditions
- Add elements that make the space feel lived-in
- Images have technical problems:
- Some AI models struggle with specific elements like hands or text
- If an element consistently causes problems, try simplifying it
- Generate multiple versions and select the best one
- Consider editing images afterward if you have image editing skills
- Not getting the right emotional tone:
- Explicitly state the mood you want in your prompt
- Add environmental elements that reinforce the tone
- Mention lighting, weather, and color palette
- Try different style models that specialize in your desired mood
Summary
AI art generation offers exciting possibilities for fiction writers. By creating visual representations of your characters, settings, and key scenes, you can maintain consistency in your descriptions and deepen your connection to your story world.
In this chapter, you’ve learned how to:
- Create effective prompts for AI art generation
- Develop character portraits that match your vision
- Visualize settings at different story moments
- Create dynamic scene compositions for pivotal moments
- Use AI art as a reference to enhance your writing
The key to success is crafting specific, detailed prompts that capture the essence of what you want to see. With practice, you’ll be able to quickly generate visual references that enhance your writing process and help bring your story world to life.
Remember that AI art is a tool to support your writing, not replace your descriptive abilities. The best approach is to use these visual references to inspire and guide your writing while still developing your own unique descriptive voice.
Experiment with different prompts, styles, and approaches to find what works best for your creative process. You might be surprised by how much a visual reference can enhance your connection to your characters and story world.
AI with Fiction Workbook Available
If you haven’t already purchased the companion workbook, Get Unstuck Workbook: Practical AI Exercises for Fiction Writers, I highly recommend getting a copy to maximize your learning. The workbook contains practical exercises for each chapter, template prompts you can use immediately, worksheets to help you apply these techniques to your specific projects, and space to record your results.
This article is also found as a bonus chapter in the first book of my Writing with the Help of AI series. Check this page for a list of my Writing with the Help of AI books: