Should illustrations such as drawings or photographs (not) be allowed?
I’d like to put this question to you because I’m fairly new here and just setting up my first series by Leonardo
The start of a series seldom is the most exciting part, but some air could be blown into it with pictures. I tried to do that in the first two chapters.
It would be rather pretentious of me to enter a site and jettisoning existing standards just like that. Therefor, I put this question to you.
Some context: I have a background as a (by times kinky) photographer. My art needs no translation. I also write, sometimes in an erotic way. But that is in my native language with a translation to English, as good as I can. By definition, a language has more limitations as a means of communication than a photograph.
Still, photos can gain power with a story attached. Conversely, can a story gain power with a photo attached?
Like in the first chapters of my series. Here they mainly have a function in the layout. To blow some air between the words. Perhaps also giving a swing to the fantasy of the reader by offering visual impulses.
This topic has already been discussed here. That was almost three years ago.The response then was rather dismissive: a good story doesn’t need illustrations, but it is up to @Corin. That seems a bit outdated, now that the stronghold of ‘text-only’, the French newspaper Le Monde, abandoned its ban on illustrations several decades ago.
Layout can be part of the accessibility of a text and therefor of its quality. By now, Internet blogs and stories without visual layout elements are a rarity.
But that doesn’t mean GSS should go with every flow. If it is the character of good kinky story that it is self-supporting, I can sympathize with that. I also empathize that it could create an unwanted barrier for straight forward text-writers, if layout elements in stories become commonplace.
I am very interested in your view and I will adhere to a general opinion.
(This is intended as a follow-up of the discussion in the post: ‘No more pictures in stories’ by @firesix in January 2019.)