Use of Images in fics?

[Wandering Rhythmical Phoenix]

I play around with sprites... ALOT... and for each chapter, as a teaser in my sig, I intend to make battle sceans/ sprite maps. HOWEVER, I was wondering if it was possible to use these images in fics. What I mean is



"NO!" The green haired girl yelled, steping into the tall grass before her. "I dont want to hear anything else from you!"

"WHAT I'M TELLING YOU IS IMPORTANT!" The young boy yelled, his eyes sharp on her back. "No one is allowed to enter this forest, for it's the home of Ho-oh!" he took a step back, the wind picked up, sending his cap flying off his head, his loose white shirt billowing like a ghost

"Ho-oh?" The girl asked. A large shadow fell over them, and a large rainbow glowing bird decended before them.[IMG139]http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j8/SpriteStore/paruipuri.png[/IMG139]



I didnt dance around discription, I was wondering if you could use images to help Set the mood, or help the reader picture the scean in their mind.
PS: I know the map sucks, I threw it together just for this thread

 

[Psychic]

Well, I strongly advise against it.

I believe putting in a picture does the exact opposite as what you think- instead of setting a mood, it totally breaks the mood of the story and interrupts the flow. This is really because the reader suddenly has to stop reading just when it's say, getting to a climactic moment. With any story, you want to get a reader so involved that they feel like they're in the scene, standing right next to the characters, feeling the emotions the characters are feeling and so on. As any fic progresses, you want the reader to get more and more excited and into the story, but just as it's about to erupt in plotty goodness- BAM! Picture smack dab in the middle of the text. The moment is gone and the reader comes away feeling nothing, unable to get back into their previous 'groove'.

Not to mention that having a random picture floating around looks very unprofessional and rather juvenile.



So, I really think it's a bad idea to have any kind of visual reference like that in a fic on a forum. If this was a little kid's book, it's fine to have pictures, but when you read a fic, you don't want to be met with a picture instead of a story.

Of course, the final decision is always yours, though I strongly advise you stick to paining a picture using only words, not video game sprites.


~Psychic

 

[The Great Butler]

I think they can be effectively used if used wisely. For example, never put a picture in IMG tags in a fic----but you could always write a link to the picture into some text that way anyone who wants to see the picture can at their leisure while everyone else doesn't have the story interrupted.

The SPPf Pokémon smileys I also find useful for mimicking the scoreboards that appear in some of the anime episodes.

 

[Smile Guy]

I think it's a no-no, in less it's at the beginning or the end of fics. A nice picture at the beginning of each chapter would be very nice to do. I don't who here reads The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness by Michelle Paver but she does a lovely decoration of title of the chapter, instead of an actual title. This can be used to great effect, as a chapter is a natural break anyway in the story, and it's quite nice to study the picture and wonder what that means.

 

[Omega Pirate]

If you did you could be seen as lazy, not willing to put enough description in the text so you just stick in a picture - and a sprite picture at that.

 

[RaZoR LeAf]

I think the only time a picture should be used in a fic is if it's to show something important. I use Dan Brown's Angel's and Demons for example, where he puts ambigrams into the body of the text to show what they look like (anyone who's not read the book, try google to see them, very clever). They only appear 5 times, so they don't break the reading. If you were trying to describe a particular symbol, or set of symbols, then using an image would be fine. But nothing more than that.

 

[Wandering Rhythmical Phoenix]

So, combining DriveshafT and SmileGuy's thoughts
-Pictures at the start or end as opposed to a title
-No Sprite pictures

But what I'm gatherering is that the general Idea of a picture in a fic is frowned upon

 

[Ledian_X]

Wouldn't it make it more like a comic then? Just wondering. It'd just be odd. I think you'd be better off making fan art away from the story instead of putting the images in it.

LX

 

[The Big Al]

Thumps down to the idea. If you want to use images, make it a fan comic.

 

[PDL]

I beleive that the use of images should be kept to an absolute minimum.

like maybe at the very ending or if the character encounters some sort of ancient runes that can't be described in any other way. Such as:



otherwise, any artwork that can accompany your fic should go to the fanart forum.

 

[~*Myuu the Ryuu*~]

I advise against this, because instead of letting the reader painting their own image of what's going on, you're giving it to them. I agree with others, it might seem more like a comic than a fic.