Writing Better Prompts

A prompt is a description, not a command. The more clearly you describe subject, setting, style, and composition, the closer the generated artwork lands to what you pictured.

A structure that works

You do not need every element every time, but working through this order keeps a prompt complete without becoming a shopping list.

1. Main subject — what the design is actually about.
2. Environment — where the subject is, or what surrounds it.
3. Composition — how it is arranged, especially across the width.
4. Style — illustration, photographic, painterly, graphic, and so on.
5. Colour palette — the colours that should dominate.
6. Lighting — direction, hardness, and colour of light.
7. Mood — the feeling the design should carry.
8. Detail level — intricate and dense, or clean and simple.
9. Exclusions or constraints — what you do not want included.
10. Wide-canvas considerations — how the design should read on a long, short canvas.

Weak versus improved

Writing for a wide canvas

• Say how the subject should span the canvas: sweeping horizontally, stretched across, running left to right.
• Ask for space where your hardware sits, so the busiest detail is not hidden under a keyboard.
• Prefer one strong subject with supporting environment over several competing focal points.
• Name the format in the prompt — an extended mousepad reads very differently from a square poster.

More prompt patterns

Common mistakes

• Two or three words only, which leaves the model to invent everything.
• Contradictory instructions such as minimalist and highly detailed in the same prompt.
• Requesting long sentences of readable text, which AI models regularly render incorrectly.
• Piling on twenty adjectives — after a point the model dilutes rather than sharpens.