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Writing Text Prompt Notes

There are many differences between Midjourney and ChatGPT in the use of prompts, and this chapter will provide a detailed introduction to the differences in Midjourney's text prompt.

Syntax​

Firstly, Midjourney basically does not understand syntax, so even if your grammar is wrong, as long as the words are correct, it can still generate images.

In addition, not understanding syntax leads to another problem: longer prompts are not necessarily better.

Especially with various adjective clauses that it simply doesn't understand, it's better to separate instructions with commas and input them one by one. Here are some recommended syntax suggestions from the official website:

  • Use adjective + noun word order instead of prepositional phrases.
    • "hair flowing in the wind" should be changed to "flowing hair"
    • "a carrot for a nose" should be changed to "carrot nose"
  • Use very specific verbs instead of prepositional phrases.
    • "a girl with a flashlight" should be changed to "a girl using a flashlight"
    • "a girl with a big smile on her face" should be changed to "smiling girl"

Finally, Midjourney does not distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters.

Words​

In terms of words, there are some similarities between Midjourney and ChatGPT; they both do not have good understanding of synonyms. For example:

  1. The word "big", how big exactly? The more concrete the size is described (e.g., gigantic), the better effect it has for Midjourney compared to using generic term like “big”.
  2. The word “cats” is plural but how many cats exactly? For Midjourney two cats is clearer than just saying “cats”.

Additionally,Midjourey can also replace words with emojis (which I think essentially count as words), which is an interesting feature.

Instead Of Saying What You Don't Want，Say What You Do Want​

Similar to ChatGPT, you should be clear about what you want instead of telling Midjourney what not to generate. If you want Midjourney not to generate something, then you need to use the "no" parameter.

If You Don't Specify, The Model Will Randomly Generate For You​

Because image information contains much more data than text, so many times Midjourney will randomly fill in some content for you. This is both a defect and a highlight feature because when you don't specify these words in the prompt, it can produce divergent results.

If you want to reduce this randomness, then using some prompt frameworks (or so-called templates) is necessary. This tutorial will teach you how to use this framework step by step.

Parameters​

Midjourney also has a significant difference from ChatGPT; it allows parameters to be added into prompts and these parameters are relatively consistent.

Therefore if the function that needs implementing is supported by parameters within them, they should be used first rather than describing them in the main body of the prompt.

In subsequent tutorials, we will learn how to make good use of these parameters.

Also note that images generated by this tutorial are default V5 version so I did not add v5 parameter in the prompt.