Visual Inspirations for Stories

[MediocreAuthor]

We all pull story inspirations from somewhere, either consciously or subconsciously.

If you have any visual inspirations that you can share for one of your stories, I'd love to see them.

Remember, visual : Show Don't Tell!

For example, these two comics worked together to form the basic inspiration for Eldritch Pact. Presumably no further explanation is necessary.


(I would politely ask that you keep the image as SFW as possible, but I realize that may be a foolhardy request)

 

[Duleigh]

 

[MediocreAuthor]

View attachment 2261033

Beautiful.
Octavia and Nick.

 

[Duleigh]

 

[AchtungNight]

This image inspired my story “Fear, Lust, and Vanity.”

 

[Altissimus]

 

[yukonnights]

The short answer is no. When I write I'm trying to put the movie in my mind onto the pages. I've been to a lot of places in this world and it's memories of the places that dictate the setting. The character's feelings, emotions, personalities, etc. are from my life and experiences. Photos or drawings would serve no purpose in moving my story forward.

But, that's just me. I have no doubt that each of us have our own approach and probably none of us are the same.

 

[Lifestyle66]

Kim Novak in the 1958 movie "Bell, Book, and Candle" was the inspiration for the main witch and her cat familiar in my story last year "Amorous Goods - The Anklet Pair". I already had the sex scene with the MMC husband giving his wife a hall pass to play on her business trip. But the movie inspired me to write the magic portion with anklets around the hall pass. I also used the movie's Zodiak night club as her meeting place when she made the anklets for part of the story.

That club and her character are also in the sequel "Amorous Goods - The Anklet Pair Pt 2" and will reappear in the next version (if I complete it) "Amorous Goods - The Magic Lamp".

 

[AwkwardMD]

I stared at this picture for a long time going "Who is she?" So, I figured it out and wrote it myself.

 

[BrightShinyGirl]

View attachment 2261043

Rory Mercury! Gate is a guilty pleasure of mine.

 

[Duleigh]

Rory Mercury! Gate is a guilty pleasure of mine.

I wrote a three part fan fic for Gate, I called it The Gate, yeah, I know, real original. If you read it, I hope you like it. It's been a while, I'm sure Rory is in it.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Actually inspire a story, no. On the other hand, I frequently use an image I’ve stumbled across online to help me mentally define a character. Look at this person! Spunky, confident, bouncy - that’s precisely what I thought ______ looks like! So that photo maybe gets printed and thumbtacked on the board next to my computer.

 

[djrip]

The the visual inspiration for the karaoke event story I'm working on is the video for the song. I'd been kicking around the idea of a story loosely inspired by this video even before the event gave me a reason to get going on it.

 

[MediocreAuthor]

Actually inspire a story, no. On the other hand, I frequently use an image I’ve stumbled across online to help me mentally define a character. Look at this person! Spunky, confident, bouncy - that’s precisely what I thought ______ looks like! So that photo maybe gets printed and thumbtacked on the board next to my computer.

I rarely seek out visual representations to help me visualize a character I've already created. However, I had a co-author ask me to find an image to represent Arien, the 7ft+ tall Amazonian red-head who is the lead character in an ongoing story. This is what Ai images generated for me:

 

[djrip]

I got a pretty good AI image of my character Maya from Birthday Getaway a while back...

 

[TarnishedPenny]

MA - nice image!

To be clearer, I don’t really use them to help me create characters; it’s more a case of using them to fine-tune initial thoughts. In any case, I’m already in the first-against-the-wall list when our digital overlords achieve Singularity.

 

[onehitwanda]

stuff like this is my Kryptonite.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I think this is the only one of mine that had a major visual inspiration. Not specifically for the characters, but for the aesthetic and the era.

 

[Duleigh]

Actually inspire a story, no. On the other hand, I frequently use an image I’ve stumbled across online to help me mentally define a character. Look at this person! Spunky, confident, bouncy - that’s precisely what I thought ______ looks like! So that photo maybe gets printed and thumbtacked on the board next to my computer.

The two pics I submitted actually inspired four stories, one was an add for an Anime that showed the Japanese JSDF in action against fantasy characters (F-4E Flying Hogs against flame dragons!) and one was an AI illustration that I made for Enchantress which inspired Enchantress 2

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Ok, further to my last. I have what I think of as a ‘character file’, images of people I’ve stumbled across and think have potential. They’re usually handsome or pretty, but not always. This is one I’ve posted before.

I haven’t used it yet, but am pretty sure I will sooner or later, describing an elderly person still very much in love and thinking back. The sheer depth to this two!

 

[Duleigh]

I got a pretty good AI image of my character Maya from Birthday Getaway a while back...

View attachment 2261108

What AI did you use for this? Every one I try makes their forest look like telephone poles behind a green fog

 

[djrip]

What AI did you use for this? Every one I try makes their forest look like telephone poles behind a green fog

That was mage dot space. From several months ago before they required paid accounts for NSFW images.

 

[MediocreAuthor]

That was mage dot space. From several months ago before they required paid accounts for NSFW images.

Funnily enough, trying to AI generate Amazonian women generated a fuck-ton of topless images, which I wasn't interested in.

 

[Duleigh]

That was mage dot space. From several months ago before they required paid accounts for NSFW images.

Thank you! Here's a start to Enchantress 3

 

[Rustyoznail]

I don't have an image that inspired a story, but a writer/illustrator on Deviantart, Erogenesis, got me hooked with his comics. I could never replicate his art, but I thought I could write a fun story like him. Here's a semi-erotic pic of his main character, Lali, and her sister Laila.