I do understand what you are saying, especially about the carbon footprint aspect. Technology is very energy intensive - even a simple Google search.

As for the artists element, I think you do have to question how many artists actually want to create the sort of content that we would request. Like I said, I have commissioned artists in the past.

But, forgetting all that, I was hoping this thread would be a place where people who have used AI could offer their expertise. You don't need to look far on this site to see that some authors are using it very well to illustrate their stories.

Oh, I completely agree. You are typing your text and spamming the button again and again. You have to think where the images are going wrong and refine your text many times. But when you hit on a a picture that actually works, it's well worth the effort.

The good thing is, this sort of technology is only going to improve with time.

I disagree. The technology is there and, if you put the time and effort into it, you can generate some really useful images. I used to spend such a long time searching through copyright-free images that I could use for the story covers on here. Inevitably, I would never be happy with what I ended up choosing.

My preference would always be to commission someone to create art (and it is something I have done in the past), but that is expensive for a lot of folks.

It's not hard to recognise that the story covers here on FF have dramatically improved in the last couple of years. AI text to picture technology has made it so much easier to show snippets of the stories we write in a visual format.

I thought it might be interesting to develop a thread where we could help each other / offer tips on how / where best to do this. I have recently updated the pictures for all my stories, but it took me days to generate pictures I was actually happy with.

I use both chatgpt (limited to 3-4 pictures per day without a subscription) and DeepAI.org, but I would be interested if anyone has found anywhere better?

The problems I find are:
- Missing limbs, too many fingers etc.
- A serious racial bias.
- Difficulty generating obese bodies where you want the person fully clothed (it tends to show the belly exposed to emphasise the obesity).
- Making the people in the picture interact in the way you would like.

I find the more you can add to the text instructions the better. Create a descriptive list of the people in the picture that you want. Then state where they are and how they are interacting.

Does anyone else have any further comments or advise on this?

This is a very interesting question and one that I had posted to the forum a couple of years ago. The consensus back then appeared to be that people preferred a serialised posting schedule.

Having written many, many stories for FF, I can say that I have always taken the approach of completing the story in its entirity before I even begin to post the first chapter on here. That way, I can feed things in from Chapter One and know exactly where it is going. Everyone who reads my stories and invests time in them will know that they will always be completed. Around half way through the story, I often say in the comments section exactly how many chapters there will be once it is all posted. I think readers quite appreciate this and it encourages them to persevere.

Although a lot of peole complain about the chapter formatting of fiction on FF, I can say with absolute certainty that it improves my stories, allowing me to create a focus for each chapter and avoid aimless rambling. Once the story has been written, I will start breaking it up into chapters and embellishing it with the FF chapter format in mind; adding cliffhangers as needed. I also find that this encourages more comments on the stories, as readers discuss and hypothesise on where the story is going, keeping it higher up on the story section page (a constant battle on this site).

I think the serialised format is preferred for a number of reasons, as have already been noted here. When people click on your new story, they will immediately see how many chapters are in it. A large number puts people off from starting, so beginning small is key. Then again, too few chapters and people won't be interested either. I tend to post a flurry of chapters at the start and then feed in the rest day by day.

I have mentioned it before, but I would love for FF to introduce a system whereby we could schedule story updates so that we could upload story chapters to go live at a certain time each day. As someone has already mentioned, life happens, and it's hard to come back each day to keep uploading chapters.

I hope this helps. Best of luck with posting your stories on here. Despite the often lack of engagement from the readers on here, the story section is widely read and always appreciated.

My computer is filled with unfinished stories where I have lost motivation to continue in just the same way that you describe. That is why I never start posting any of my work on here until I have completed the entire thing.

In all honesty, starting a story is easy, but finishing it is incredibly hard work. We write them to describe and fantasise about the fat gains, but it's not as if life stops the moment your character reaches their goal weight. There has to be something else; something more to it that signifies the ending of the story. Finding that is extremely difficult, and the reason why many gainer fictions never reach the finish line.

I've found that, rather than letting the weight gain drive the story, it's the other conflicts that have to be the deciding factor on the direction the story takes and, ultimately, where you finish the story.

I would suggest that you take a fresh look at the other themes you've developed in your work and decide how you want to resolve these. Re-read your first chapter and see how you can tie it together into the ending you want to create. Once you know that, the next steps to get there should be much clearer to you.

I need to be really honest and say that I am rather stunned by some of the comments here.

Whilst I am aware that this is a 'fantasy' site, I cannot accept that people are so delighted to ignore valid concerns, raised by someone about underlying and overt themes and messages in stories.

Yes, Fantasy Feeder is a site for expression and exploration, but that does not mean that we can step out of the wider world; a world where we are still campaigning hard for social change and justice. Racism and rape are unacceptable. That's something I never thought I would have to say here.

As a site, Fantasy Feeder should be looking at their guidelines and reviewing this with a lot more seriousness than I can see evidenced here.

Thanks for this.

I was wondering what the site policy is for images used on the stories section? I always ensure that I search for images that are copyright free and use those as the cover image of my stories. However, I have also seen many with images that clearly have watermarks on them. I just wanted to know whether this is an issue or not? Am I being too cautious?

I've definitely tried to write something like this. It's quite hard to do, without other characters to bounce off and create those twists and turns - things that you need for a compelling story. As is always said about fiction writing, you need some sort of conflict.

I have a story that is half-finished that would probably fit your description pretty well. If I ever get around to posting it, I will have to let you know.