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Writer's pictureJake Thornton

Using Midjourney to fuel your imagination OR Do Androids Dream of eBook covers?

I. Love. Midjourney.


As a screenwriter and aspiring author, I am constantly imagining wonderful and fantastical locations, characters, monsters and worlds.


The images that appear in our minds when we're creating are informed by everything our unconscious mind has seen up until that point, even if it's a "new" idea.


What I've found with Midjourney, is I now have a creative visionary I get to work alongside with to fuel that.


For those of you who don't know what Midjourney is, (you may have been living under a rock), it is an AI art creation tool, that, when given certain text prompts, creates art based on those prompts. You can find out more about it here.


For example, here are some pieces of art I made inspired by my debit novel, Milly Tipton and the Spirits of Christmas.


The Christmas Citadel, home of the mysterious Spirits of Christmas.





























A Devourer, shadowy demon wolves who plague the Land of the Dead.

Milly Tipton, the titular hero of my debut novel.

When I first met my screenwriting partner, Ben Lustig, in 2008, we began a rewrite of a script he'd written called Silverfox. It was set against the backdrop of a post-apocalyptic world, where water was scarce, and beings called "Nukes" we able to channel huge amounts of power through them. It was Mad Max with super powers. We partnered with artists Tommel Design to create some art for us when we took it out as a pitch.


As soon as we began to see it, we got SO excited. It was exciting not because it looked like we imagined it, but because it didn't. It looked BETTER.

Fox, the protagonist of our first screenplay.

When me and Ben got to go to Bulgaria last year and visitors the set of The Princess, we had the same experience. We had written this script set in a medieval world. In my mind it looked and felt like an old English castle; Grey walls, drab colors, brown wood.


When we got there it was something else entirely. It was so COLORFUL. The set designers and decorators had created something BETTER than mine and Ben’s imagination. It was wonderful to experience.


Behind the scenes on "The Princess".

We're about to take a TV pitch out soon set in an underwater habitat, and had enormous fun playing with midjourney to inspire the creative imagination when picturing those worlds.


All of a sudden, my creative mind is playing with the basis of those images, those pictures. And it builds on those more and more. It's like having a visual collaborator there at all times, to add some neat and cool pieces of art that can inspire yet more ideas.


I also, using midjourney, mocked up a cover for my novel, that I now have on my vision board. I also used that art to place it on a picture I took in Powell's bookstore in Portland. I focus on these pictures every day when I'm visualizing the future I want to create.


A cover mockup for my first novel.


I added it onto the "recommended" shelf in Powells for my vision board.

I was recently sent this cool link to use midjourney even better than I had been before. It will build the prompt for you. I've played with it a bit and it's great. Check it out here.


Have you played with midjourney yet? What have you been using it for?


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