Visualizing your characters

[JaxRhapsody]

I've never resorted to actually looking for pictures for character inspiration, I pretty much fabricate them like one of those computers that can generate face images. As far as descriptions; I try to slide those in, usually by character lines.

 

[XerXesXu]

I've never resorted to actually looking for pictures for character inspiration, I pretty much fabricate them like one of those computers that can generate face images. As far as descriptions; I try to slide those in, usually by character lines.

I use Open AI GAN images (faces) with a short description of role to indicate my visualisation of the characters faces. You can just browse until you find one that suits.

Unfortunately the protocol is that there should be attribution, and since my attribution must be to a website I can't post illustrations to Lit.

 

[SimonDoom]

Here's a tangent: what's the worst piece of physical description you've written?

I just pose it because I ran across something really bad in an early draft of the story I'm posting on lit right now:

In the right sort of story, that would work perfectly well.

There's a big readership out there for bimbo stories, and those readers like to see women described in over-the-top ways. "Bolt-on" is an arousing phrase to some. But to others it's a turn-off. If you're trying to establish a serious or romantic tone, that sentence would not work.

 

[TadOverdon]

I'm not sure if I prefer post 83 or 97.

Oh, it's definitely the later one - it's much more photographic and the stare is less fixed. And the hair is much better and less of a stiff dark mass.

I'm too easy - the artist sends an image and I'm completely satisfied, then a week or two later sends another and I'm shocked at how much improvement there is. Why was I okay with the first? I guess I'm just still impressed by the tech itself.

 

[Starlust]

I have bi women, they're fun to write since it multiplies the number of combinations.

But I also have straight women, a few of them may have tried the bi thing and clearly didn't like it (Dixie) or had an ok enough time but were there to fulfill a bet or a promise and wouldn't do it again (Jayne). Some had periods where they were more flexible but have over time turned purely straight (Maria, Shelly). Others if they find themselves in a group situation would stick strictly to men, or may have been willing to let another woman perform oral sex on them but wouldn't reciprocate (Bonnie, Joyce, Anna Squared).

I also have lesbians, some stick strictly to that (Teresa) and one or two don't mind fucking an occasional guy if they like him and it also involves a bi-woman and that woman's male partner (Veronica). I differentiate by what their primary orientation is - mostly straight but don't mind occasional women involved or mostly lesbian but don't mind occasional men involved.

Have you written any lesbians who thought they could be with a guy but then thought....nah, I'm 110% gay? I have a het-married lesbian in my story (Juliette) who fell victim to comphet growing up and internalised that the stereotype that sexy feminine girls like her can't be gay. I know that's something that happens IRL so I took a fantasy girl from my imagination and fitted her into that.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

I use Open AI GAN images (faces) with a short description of role to indicate my visualisation of the characters faces. You can just browse until you find one that suits.

Unfortunately the protocol is that there should be attribution, and since my attribution must be to a website I can't post illustrations to Lit.

I meant with my imagination.

 

[XerXesXu]

I meant with my imagination.

I understood that. I was pointing out that an AI assistance to visualisation exists, and I use it.

If you download the software and have training images available you can tune your own images to anything you desire. The potential to illustrate an author's visualisation already exists.

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but how much free rein do you want to leave to the reader? That's my reservation.

 

[PennameWombat]

Have you written any lesbians who thought they could be with a guy but then thought....nah, I'm 110% gay? I have a het-married lesbian in my story (Juliette) who fell victim to comphet growing up and internalised that the stereotype that sexy feminine girls like her can't be gay. I know that's something that happens IRL so I took a fantasy girl from my imagination and fitted her into that.

Hey Starlust. Sorry, missed your posting. I agree with your point, a long-ago (1980s) IRL girlfriend fits closest to the dynamic you've described, I've told people IRL that "I'm the man who convinced her to never again be with men." I did nothing specifically other than fall in love with her, but it seems the seriousness of that finally convinced her, so we never proceeded to a het marriage, nor did she with any other man. As of today, she's been in a long-term (two decades+) lesbian relationship and she's the biological mother of their daughter.

I've used aspects of that experience and her in my stories, but never a single such character. Veronica that I mentioned in my posting comes closest, she tried quite hard for a while with men but exposure to bi/lesbian women finally broke her shell. That said, she still likes sex with certain men under the right circumstances but she checks her heart at the door and lets other body parts run the show for those.

 

[CyranoJ]

A lot of my characters come from IRL references.

"Lana Lilly" from "Miss Lilly's Spring Surprise" is basically Lily LaBeau. (GOAT pornstar if I had to pick one.)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Lily_Labeau.jpg

I imagine Graciela Salinas in that story along the lines of Isis Love, but it's much less specific in the story itself.

Hana in "Strange Love" actually gets kind of a name-check in the story as looking like a buzzcut PAWG version of Emily Grey.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNjFkN2EwMDMtMmZmZC00YWI0LWI0OGItYzEwZTRhNzdkMDViXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMzM4MjM0Nzg@._V1_UY1200_CR102,0,630,1200_AL_.jpg

Her lover, Nomi, also has a specific source of inspiration:

https://64.media.tumblr.com/0611a7d87a2c9018995c7c1a69489675/tumblr_opn3puAPg81tt2gwco5_540.jpg

Johnni Too-Bad in "Running Riot" and her lover and frenemy Phaedra were based on specific models whose actual names I don't know.

https://64.media.tumblr.com/7645cc031c5547764656ca2147807ef0/tumblr_opnn8nu8W01tt2gwco1_540.jpg

https://64.media.tumblr.com/126d889bc4e2f7142062cfdc4fb62c3a/tumblr_og6wznPFVb1tt2gwco8_500.jpg

The Anne Coulter analogue in "Making the Scene in Room 116" is based on Karla Kush:

https://bingeddata.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2021/01/6V3gi1sDYfa1fY4OYyd6U9b0Oga.jpg

[EDIT: Ah, and her bestie was based on Stoya.]

https://pyxis.nymag.com/v1/imgs/c68/c52/9dbcd84d580880100fe0518cb54be7b354-03-stoya.rsquare.w700.jpg

The psychiatrist character in "The Game" is 100% based on Jennifer Connelly. Other characters in the story are more organically generated.

https://all-nude-celebs.net/wp-content/uploads/2020-02-03-179574/jennifer-connelly-pussy.jpg

In general, most of this doesn't really matter much for the reader experience, I think. It shaped to some degree (depending on the story) how I wrote the characters, but the reader can generally form their own impressions.

 

[TadOverdon]

There was a character who appeared in a couple of paragraphs in one of our books, based on an image of a porn actor found online, who eventually had a book devoted to her and still pops up here and there in other stories. I think the performer was "Rose:"

https://i.imgur.com/h1Gs37O.png

 

[NotWise]

Penny in "Watch Me!" was originally supposed to be a secondary character. Then I found this likeness of her:

The original is wallpaper-sized, and I used it as wallpaper while I wrote the story. Suddenly Penny wasn't a secondary character any more.

 

[LanaBehave]

"She looked like a middle-aged Tinkerbelle with bolt-ons."

Substituting "Chanticleer" for "Tinkerbelle".

 

[yowser]

So far I haven't used a photo to provide inspiration (although I have a couple of potentials in the collection, begging for attention) but sometimes in the midst of the story creation, I think of a pic that helps locate the character's physical presence, and that has sometimes moved the story forward. Here are two examples

Nikki Feingold in my Amorous Goods tale

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50489043582_ab6a0690a3_c.jpg
Nikki Feingold by Yowser, on Flickr

and Ripper in "the Old Coot and the Couple"

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49704004363_91b75f6b23_c.jpg
Ripper by Yowser, on Flickr

Now, what would be an interesting exercise would be a posted photo, with a challenge for authors to do a story incorporating that person. Probably best not a celebrity or well-known individual (with well-known personal history and characteristics). Hmmm...

 

[jaF0]

Nikki Feingold in my Amorous Goods tale

New season is posted if you haven't seen it yet.

 

[SexualisPhantasia]

I have an adults only game that allows creation of custom characters, I have been able to create images of my characters exactly as I imagined them. It's very cool.

 

[LAHomedog]

I picture in my mind's eye someone I actually know, or an actor. Not jis or her character, the person. I've got to see them fully formed in my visual-spatial brain to write them.

 

[KeithD]

I usually just plug keywords (like "sexy arab men") in an Internet search and I get a return of a line of images with the offer to open that up for a mother lode of images. Easy-peasy

 

[TadOverdon]

yay me.

https://i.imgur.com/0bLoGoY.png

 

[TadOverdon]

Stefan Novak could have been an actor himself, a leading man for certain, tall and athletic with searching blue eyes, straight nose, and a strong jaw. He was deeply tanned, his thick chestnut hair bleached nearly white in streaks from a life lived in the tropic sun. He was about Ethan's age and reminded Lauren of her son—relaxed, amused, standing back and apart from his surroundings in a curious way. His gray Ring Jacket suit softly draped and accentuated the breadth of his shoulders and his narrow hips.

 

[TadOverdon]

https://i.imgur.com/GhYlDjv.png

 

[BiscuitHammer]

I do indulge in detailed descriptions of my characters, but almost never in a clinical fashion. I describe hair and eye colours (Alexa's are a joyous, dancing sapphire blue, while Karen's are an unnerving golden-amber, like those of a wolf, or a hawk). Alexa has long, voluminous locks of golden-blonde hair that almost reaches her knees, while Karen's silken, shining bronze hair frames her lovely, patrician face in a stylish bob.

When it comes to chest sizes, it's very unlikely for me to give an actual measurement, unless the women in question states it herself. Sometimes cup sizes are mentioned, usually by another party.

I talk about dazzling smiles and infectious grins.

Sometimes I let a character draw a comparison about another one for us.

"Dude, if my wife was built like Dana Hamm, I'd bang her in every damn room of this giant house too!"

A reader now knows what Alexa is built like, or is a simple Google search away from knowing.

I enjoy describing my characters, I just like to find interesting ways to do it. Clinical descriptions are best left for a very specific situation, like a suspect lineup, or an autopsy table.

 

[MajorRewrite]

I always have a pic open on my screen next to the word processor. The photos sometimes also provide ideas for clothes in the story.

An Instagram model named Nata Lee provided inspiration/stimulation for my latest story “Intervention Wife”. She’s well worth googling. Cute face, insane body and her plastic surgeon was a genius.

Another Instagram model named Abigail Ratchford is on my screen as I’m finishing my Halloween story (coming soon). For the story I made her a 5-foot tall “pint-size sex kitten”. Hey, it works for me.

 

[TadOverdon]

Here's a thing I could use some more input on, for any of you who have a moment and an opinion on the visual/marketing stuff - which of the fonts below, if either, do you like better for the "Mother" series title:

https://i.imgur.com/ANlNkHq.png


Thanks

 

[SimonDoom]

Here's a thing I could use some more input on, for any of you who have a moment and an opinion on the visual/marketing stuff - which of the fonts below, if either, do you like better for the "Mother" series title:

https://i.imgur.com/ANlNkHq.png


Thanks

Two.

I like the thinner letters in two. They seem not to highlight the white borders of the letters as much. And I like that off-kilter "O" in the second version. It's more interesting than the more conventional "O" in the first version.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Here's a thing I could use some more input on, for any of you who have a moment and an opinion on the visual/marketing stuff - which of the fonts below, if either, do you like better for the "Mother" series title:

https://i.imgur.com/ANlNkHq.png


Thanks

Neither. The font for Mother clashes with the Art Deco font in the subtitle. That's a real visual clash to my eye.