Use AI Art As a Muse For Your Creative Writing

A surreal scene can inspire intricate tales of fiction

As text-to-image generators like Midjourney become more advanced, they become more responsive to the prompts I feed them. What was just an image in my head becomes a picture on the screen within seconds, which is exciting. While I’ve been creating generated images for my Medium articles, I’m now using the visual results to fuel my writing.

More specifically, I’m stepping back into the wonderful world of flash fiction. If you’re not familiar with this genre of writing, it’s very short fiction paired with a snapshot of a place or person(s). The words are merely imagining what’s happening in the scene.

In the past, I would only write short fiction when I snapped a photo that conjured a story in my head. That is becoming increasingly less common as I’ve turned my attention from street photography to my digital creations. I no longer have to venture into the city to get images that I like — I can now feed my ideas into the machine and let AI do the work.

I love shooting street photos during the golden hour, but as winter approaches, the golden hour here in Canada is more like a golden minute. Luckily, Midjourney (and other AI generators) understand “golden hour” as a descriptor.

A few days ago I envisioned a lonely, old man sitting alone in the golden light. I asked Midjourney to paint my thoughts, and when I saw the results, a story sprung to life.

Here is that AI image/flash fiction mash-up:

Tom had seen some things in his hood. After all, he’d lived there for 57 years.

There was the time Mrs. West was dragged down the street when her dress caught on a bus. Now that was a show. There was that other time when Jack Stevens got so drunk he fell down a manhole. That one even brought out the big city news boys.

He’d seen people fall in love, marry, and die. In fact, his sweetheart of 26 years, Macy, was laid up in a city hospital on life support. Doctors said her chances weren’t good.

But Tom somehow always had a smile on his face. The locals wondered if it was his nature, or the bottles he sometimes leaves behind.

You could usually find Tom at Main and Furman streets around 7pm, admiring the glow of the falling sun. The birds always came to him, even though he never had breadcrumbs. Maybe they knew something about Tom that people didn’t.

I’m so glad I snapped this photo last week, because when I went to see Tom for our daily chat this evening, his friend Meredith just shook her head.

“He died around 4,” she said to me without emotion. “I mean, he was no spring chicken.”

There would be no service, she said.

Embrace AI As a Partner For Your Creations

Several components of this generated image were not requested in my prompt — for example the birds around the subject. However, they ended up in my short writing piece. You never know exactly what you’re going to get from AI, which is also one of the biggest appeals of hitting the streets with a camera. It’s full of surprises.

You don’t have to be a fiction writer to use AI images for writing inspiration. It can simply be a fun way to exercise your writing muscles and push your creativity.

I see creative writing as just one way to use AI images. While many writers and artists are (understandably) worried about robots taking their jobs, I think AI can become an extension of a human creator.

I plan to post more content on my artist IG account using artificial images that (hopefully) spark real emotions. If you don’t follow me there, now’s the time!