How to Get More Creative Images from Midjourney

You're staring at a blank prompt box in Midjourney (an AI image generator that turns your text descriptions into pictures), and you've typed something quick like "a cafe". The four images that come back are fine — but they're the same cafe you could have imagined in five seconds. There's a better way.

Write prompts that give the AI somewhere to go

The biggest shift you can make is moving from keywords to brief-style prompts. Compare these:

• Keyword style: cafe, winter, warm light, photo
• Brief style: a quiet country cafe at dusk, soft amber light spilling through frosted windows, worn wooden tables, a single cat asleep in the corner, editorial photography

Both tell the AI the same thing on paper. The brief version gives it mood, lighting, composition (how elements are arranged inside the frame), and texture to work with. The keyword version gives it a shopping list and asks it to guess what you meant.

Try writing prompts the way you'd brief a photographer: subject, mood, lighting, setting, then any style cues.

Use parameters to steer the result

Parameters are the little settings you tack onto the end of a prompt with two dashes. A few worth knowing:

• --ar 16:9 sets the aspect ratio (the shape of the image — widescreen, square, portrait). Great for blog headers, Instagram, or print.
• --s 50 or --s 250 controls stylize — how much Midjourney leans into its own artistic taste. Lower numbers follow your prompt more literally; higher numbers give it more creative freedom.
• --no text, watermark tells the AI to avoid certain things. Useful when it keeps adding unwanted details.

You don't need to memorise these. Just remember the rhythm: prompt first, parameters at the end.

Train the personalisation profile

Midjourney has a personalisation feature that learns what you tend to like. After you've rated enough images, you can toggle it on with --p (or click the personalisation button in the web app). The first few sessions feel normal, but within a week or two the results start tilting towards your taste.

The trick is to rate honestly — pick the images you actually like, not the ones you think you should like. That's how the profile learns you.

Wrap-up

Better Midjourney images aren't about typing more — they're about typing more usefully. A short brief beats a long keyword list. A parameter or two beats a vague instruction. And ten minutes of honest rating beats any single clever prompt. Try writing one brief-style prompt today, and add --s 100 to see how it shifts the mood.