MidJourney for Authors: How to Create an Unforgettable Character

As an author, I know how fun it can be to flip through the millions of photos of people online just to find the perfect representation of your character. What if you didn’t have to do that? What if you used MidJourney to design your characters? MidJourney for authors can be quite useful.

MidJourney as a Tool for Authors

MidJourney gives you the ability to come up with the characters you have running around in your head. With the right prompt and description, you can ensure you have exactly what your characters look like and you can share them or keep them to yourself.

Why Should You Bring Your Characters to Life?

Some people prefer not to see the characters in the book they’re reading, a lot of readers really enjoy seeing this glimpse into your mind as the author. Your images can be used to generate excitement and stir up more interest in your book. Here are some other ways to use characters generated by MidJourney or other AI art software:

Build Anticipation

One of the best ways to grow interest in your book, particularly if it is in the pre-order stage. This can be done to help your audience understand more about the book and to get them thinking about the characters. There are a few ways to do this.

First, you can present a character and have their bio as the caption. This is a fun way to present them and you get to talk about them as an author. Let the reader know just how tricky this character was for you. Share if they were pigheaded and constantly tried to turn the plot on you.

Second, you can let the character do their own intro. A quote alongside the image is a fun way to make the readers sit up and pay attention. They’ll quickly determine who they are most interested in reading about.

Improve Social Media Engagement

You want engagement on your social media posts, right? So make sure you get it by pitting characters against each other or having either or options. For example, use MidJourney to create two versions of your character and ask people to vote on which one they think best represents the book character. This can get quite heated, so your engagement may go through the roof.

Create Book Bling

Readers love to receive little prizes and treats from their favorite authors, so why not use MidJourney to do just that? The characters and scenes you create in the AI will give you the perfect starting point for making your own postcards, bookplates, bookmarks, and stickers.

Who wouldn’t love to receive a set of stickers with their favorite book character on it? However, you can go even further and set up a print-on-demand store where readers can purchase your book art on mugs, t-shirts, and more. Obviously, this works best when you have more people reading your books, but it can make a few sales even earlier on.

Getting Your Character Right with MidJourney for Authors

Prompts are everything when it comes to using MidJourney to create your book characters. You likely already have a description, so it’s necessary to pull all those bits and pieces into one perfect prompt. Let’s look at how this should be put together.

For our example, we’ll start with Ralph, from Lord of the Flies, a book many of us read in school. Ralph is described as a 12-year-old boy who is attractive, has blue eyes, blonde hair and tan skin, as well as boxer-like shoulders. If we put this into the prompt, these are the images we get back:

Now, we also know from the book that Ralph started out handsome and charismatic, but later his hair got longer and he was dirty and his clothes torn, so if we want to check out that version of the book character, we might change things up a bit.

“Handsome 12-year-old boy with blue eyes, overgrown blonde hair and tan skin, boxer-like shoulders, dirt on his face, tangled hair and torn, dirty clothes”

This prompt generated a more unkempt child.

You should include as many physical characteristics as possible, including nose shape or size, hair length and type, eye color and shape, any racial characteristics, etc. These will all help you create a more realistic version of your character.

Of course, as an author, you have a much better idea of what your character looks like. This gives you a serious advantage when you’re trying to build a character image in MidJourney.

Questions to Answer About Your Character

Want to create a character who looks just like you imagine? Here are some questions to ask yourself so you can come up with a great prompt:

  1. What is the character’s height and weight?
  2. What is the character’s body build, such as slender, athletic, or curvy?
  3. What is the character’s hair color, length, and texture?
  4. What are the character’s eye color, shape, and expression?
  5. Does the character have any distinctive facial features, such as scars, birthmarks, or freckles?
  6. What is the character’s skin color, complexion, and tone?
  7. Does the character have any tattoos, piercings, or other body modifications?
  8. What is the character’s style of dress and grooming habits?
  9. Does the character have any unique physical abilities or disabilities?
  10. What is the character’s overall posture and body language?
  11. What are the character’s hands and feet like, such as size, shape, and condition?
  12. Does the character have any distinctive gestures or mannerisms?
  13. What is the character’s age and how does it affect their physical appearance?
  14. Does the character have any health conditions or physical limitations?
  15. How does the character’s physical appearance change throughout the story or in different situations?

While you don’t need to answer all of these questions, it can help you get a really good description of your character, even if that’s not added to the novel. From there, you can set up a prompt for MidJourney and start generating for your characters.

It’s worth noting that you may need to specify photography style, digital art style, etc. to ensure you get the results you want. This is particularly true if you want a photo-realistic image, but use fantasy type words like orc, fae, and warrior. These tend to produce images that are more fantastical and artsy than simply describing a human.

Ready to enjoy your life as an author with characters at your fingertips? Jump on MidJourney and get started.

MidJourney for Authors: How to Create an Unforgettable Character

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