Midjourney Prompt Writing Guide

Midjourney transforms text descriptions into images, but the quality of your results depends heavily on how you write your prompts. A well-crafted prompt can produce breathtaking artwork; a vague one yields generic results. This guide teaches you the principles and techniques that separate compelling Midjourney prompts from mediocre ones.

Understanding Prompt Structure

Every Midjourney prompt follows a basic pattern: you describe what you want to see, and optionally add parameters that control how the image is generated. While there's no rigid syntax, thinking in terms of subject, details, style, and parameters helps organize your thoughts into effective prompts.

Consider this example: "A majestic dragon perched on a crystal mountain, iridescent scales reflecting sunset light, fantasy art style, highly detailed --ar 16:9 --v 6"

This prompt has a clear subject (a dragon on a mountain), specific details (iridescent scales, sunset light), a style direction (fantasy art, highly detailed), and technical parameters (aspect ratio and version). Each element contributes to the final image.

Describing Your Subject

The subject is what your image is about—the main focus that viewers' eyes will be drawn to. Be specific rather than generic. "A dog" gives Midjourney very little to work with and will produce a generic result. "A golden retriever puppy with floppy ears, sitting in autumn leaves" provides concrete details that guide the generation toward something specific and interesting.

Include action when relevant. Rather than describing a static scene, consider what's happening: "running through," "gazing at," "reaching toward." Movement and action add dynamism and story to your images.

When quantity matters, specify it. "Three ancient oak trees standing in a misty clearing" is more precise than "some trees." Midjourney takes numerical guidance seriously.

Adding Meaningful Details

Details transform generic images into compelling ones. Think about the specific qualities that would make your scene come alive.

Colors benefit from specificity. Rather than "red," consider "deep crimson," "rusty red," or "candy apple red." Each evokes a different mood and shade. Similarly, "blue" could be "cobalt blue," "powder blue," or "electric blue."

Textures add tangible quality to images. "Weathered stone walls," "smooth silk fabric," "rough bark," "polished marble"—these descriptors help Midjourney generate surfaces that feel real and intentional rather than generically rendered.

Lighting dramatically affects mood. "Golden hour" suggests warm, diffused sunlight from a low angle. "Dramatic shadows" implies strong directional light. "Soft, overcast illumination" creates even, muted lighting. "Neon lights reflecting on wet pavement" evokes urban night scenes.

Mood and atmosphere words guide the overall feeling: mysterious, peaceful, energetic, melancholic, triumphant. These abstract concepts influence aesthetic decisions throughout the generation process.

Style References

You can guide Midjourney's aesthetic by referencing art styles, specific artists, media types, or historical periods.

Art movements and styles work well: impressionist, art deco, minimalist, baroque, cyberpunk, steampunk, art nouveau. Each brings distinct visual characteristics that Midjourney has learned from its training data.

Referencing artists ("in the style of Monet," "reminiscent of Alphonse Mucha") can dramatically shape the aesthetic, though results vary based on how well-represented an artist is in training data.

Media type references help specify the intended look: oil painting, watercolor, digital illustration, charcoal sketch, 3D render, photograph. Each suggests different textures, color palettes, and levels of realism.

Historical or cultural references frame the aesthetic in specific contexts: "1950s advertisement poster," "traditional Japanese," "Victorian era," "retrofuturism." These combine many implicit style choices into a single recognizable direction.

Essential Parameters

Parameters appear at the end of your prompt after two hyphens and modify how Midjourney generates your image.

Aspect ratio (--ar) controls the shape of your output. The default is 1:1 (square). Use --ar 16:9 for widescreen landscapes, --ar 9:16 for vertical mobile formats, --ar 21:9 for cinematic ultrawide. Choosing the right aspect ratio for your subject matter helps Midjourney compose the scene effectively.

Version (--v) specifies which Midjourney model to use. Version 6 (--v 6) is currently the latest and most capable. Niji mode (--niji 6) is optimized for anime and illustration styles.

Stylize (--s) controls how strongly Midjourney applies its aesthetic training. Lower values (--s 50) produce more literal interpretations of your prompt. Higher values (--s 500) give Midjourney more creative license to make aesthetic choices. The default of 100 balances faithfulness with artistic enhancement.

Chaos (--c) affects variation between the four images in each generation. Low chaos (--c 0) produces four similar images. High chaos (--c 100) produces four wildly different interpretations of your prompt. Moderate chaos is useful during exploration; low chaos is better once you've found a direction you like.

Advanced Techniques

Multi-prompting with double colons lets you separate distinct concepts: "forest :: sunset :: mist" treats each as a separate element to blend. You can weight these concepts differently: "forest::2 sunset::1" gives twice as much emphasis to the forest.

Negative prompting removes unwanted elements with --no: "--no text, watermark, blur" helps avoid common artifacts that can mar otherwise good images.

Image prompting uses uploaded or linked images as references for style or content. This is powerful for maintaining consistency across a series or matching a specific aesthetic you have in mind.

A Quality Checklist

Before finalizing your prompt, run through these questions: Is the subject clear and specific? Have you included details that make the scene distinctive? Is the style defined, either explicitly or through references? Are parameters optimized for your intended use—correct aspect ratio, appropriate stylization level? Have you excluded elements you don't want?

Practice and iteration are the keys to mastering Midjourney. Each generation teaches you something about how the model interprets different concepts and combinations. Keep notes on what works, build a personal vocabulary of effective terms, and don't hesitate to generate many variations as you refine your vision.