Hello everyone <3,
A new forum member has just started out as a writer and asked me how I keep my characters consistent using NovelAI via DM. Since I personally would've loved to have someone help me with stuff like that back when I first started, I am more than happy to help out ❤

!
1)
Write your prompts (n1). They should describe the character you want to portray as well as possible. Don't hestitate to try some fancy stuff. When I started, NovelAI wasn't able to consistantly create something other than a plain shirt/sweater. Nowadays you can get really creative with the clothing (think of Alara's Eevee jacket for example).
Always use small landscape/small portrait as the start. It's the cheapest and thus allows you to experiment the most. Don't be too concerned with quality for now. That will drastically improve later.
2)
Upscale and download the image you've created (n2). Upscaling will sharpen the edges and improve the quality of the shitty small portrait/small landscape frame a bit. You'll need the downloaded image for step 3.
Upscaled images achieve drastically better results in later steps! The character I am trying to create here is supposed to resemble Alara from Pokémon: Eclipse. Notice how she doesn't look anything like her yet? Let's fix that!
3)
reupload the generated image (n3). Click on the arrow on the left and chose
Image2Image. Your upscaled image will be the basis for the next generated picture. Following pictures are going to be upscaled automatically. The frame is supposed to say
"custom" after following the steps. If you already have a picture of the character you try to create and thus want to imitate that exact clothing and artstyle, upload a
"character reference image". I wouldn't recommend using pictures of actual artists as a base. Sure it works, but it's unethical. (You can use pictures of people like me instead.
You can't steal from us. The images were made by AI and that means that I do not own them! e-hentai is full of AI galleries you could use as a reference basis

).
I uploaded my reference image for Alara (n4) (if you have multiple, you can chose whatever shows what you need best) and hit "generate" again.
4) My character now actually starts to look like Alara (n5)!
I can improve it even more by inpainting a little, but the goal has pretty much already been achieved ❤.
