Midjourney's Draft Mode: Get Fast Images and Talk to the Bot

Midjourney introduced Draft Mode recently. It's a new way to make images fast and interact with the bot. This can feel confusing at first because the name "Draft Mode" means two different things depending on how you turn it on. Let's break it down simply so you can use it effectively.

Making Images Quickly with Draft Mode

The first way Draft Mode works is simple: it makes your images in just a few seconds. It's much faster than the standard mode. You can turn this on in two ways:

• Go into your Midjourney settings and select Draft Mode there.

• Add `--draft` to the end of your prompt.

When you use Draft Mode this way, your images appear very quickly. This is great when you want to see ideas fast. However, there's another way to use "Draft Mode" that works very differently.

Draft Mode as a Conversation Tool

Here is where "Draft Mode" gets interesting and potentially confusing. There is a specific Draft Mode button at the top of the Midjourney create page. If you click this button, you enter a conversational interface.

In this mode, Midjourney uses a language model to understand what you want. When you type a simple prompt, the bot will expand it like a human might, adding details and style ideas. For example, if you prompt for "a woman with blonde hair wearing a blue dress and yellow shoes," it might add things like "modern urban setting, vibrant colors, dynamic pose, contemporary art style."

The real benefit here is how you can talk to the bot naturally to change your images. You can say things like:

• "Put her in a purple dress."

• "Make her look like she's from outer space."

• "Keep her outfit colors but make it a space suit."

The bot will adjust your prompt based on these simple instructions and create new images. It's like talking through your image ideas.

Why This Can Be Confusing

The main point of confusion is the name. Using `--draft` or the setting switch creates *fast images*, but you can't then use the conversational feature on those images. To use the conversational, iterative Draft Mode, you MUST click the dedicated "Draft Mode" button at the top of the create page FIRST before you make your initial image. The first image needs to be generated within this specific conversational interface to continue "talking" to the bot about it.

To get the most out of features like this and automate repetitive tasks in Midjourney workflows, check out the Midjourney Automation Suite from TitanXT. It can help manage your creative process more efficiently.

Parameters and Prompt Length in Conversational Draft Mode

There are a couple of other things to know about the conversational Draft Mode interface:

• Parameters: You cannot type parameters like `--chaos 5` or `--style` directly into the prompt while in the conversational interface. If you want specific parameters applied, you must set them in your Midjourney settings *before* you click the Draft Mode button at the top of the create page to start the conversation.

• Prompt Length: The bot will expand short prompts to offer creative ideas. If you write a longer, more detailed prompt from the start, it will usually just take that prompt as written without adding its own ideas.

Starting Fresh in Conversational Draft Mode

If you've been iterating on an idea (like the woman in the purple dress) and want to start a completely new concept, you have a couple of options:

• Refresh the page: This will clear the current conversation chain.

• Enter a drastically different prompt: If your next prompt is totally unrelated to the previous one (e.g., "an underwater themed casino" after iterating on a woman), the bot should start a new visual theme and suggested prompt.

Drawbacks of Draft Mode (Fast Images)

While getting fast images is exciting, there's a trade-off. The speedy version of Draft Mode (via settings or `--draft`) generates images at a lower quality level (Quality 0.25). You might notice errors, especially with details like anatomy. The images might look okay as small previews, but they aren't the full quality Midjourney can produce.

Using Enhance and Seeds to Improve Quality

Midjourney offers tools to get higher quality results based on your Draft Mode ideas:

• Enhance: This feature appears when you hover over a prompt or click on an image (you might need to click "More options" or "More actions"). Clicking Enhance does NOT improve the specific image you see. Instead, it takes the *prompt* that created that image and runs it again using the standard, higher-quality Midjourney algorithm. You will get a new set of images based on the same prompt, but they should have fewer errors and better detail.

• Copy Seed: If you find a *specific* image in Draft Mode that you really like despite its flaws, you can try to recreate a similar one in standard quality. Click the hamburger icon (three lines) next to the image and select "Copy Seed." Then, create a new prompt using the same text, add `--seed`, and paste the number. This tells Midjourney to use the same starting point for the standard generation. The result won't be identical, but it will be much closer to that specific image than just running the prompt with Enhance, and it will be higher quality.

Enhance is about getting a better *set* of images from your prompt idea, while using the seed is an advanced trick for getting a higher-quality image that closely resembles a *specific* draft image.

Managing multiple prompts, seeds, and different generation modes can become complex. Consider using tools like the Midjourney Automation Suite from TitanXT to help organize and streamline your Midjourney projects.

Putting It All Together

Draft Mode gives you speed. Using `--draft` or the setting gives you fast images for quick previews. Using the Draft Mode button at the top gives you a conversation experience to quickly iterate on prompt ideas inspired by a language model.

Remember that Draft Mode images are lower quality. To get better results from your Draft Mode ideas, use the Enhance feature or the Copy Seed trick to generate images in standard quality.

Understanding the two different ways "Draft Mode" works is key to using Midjourney effectively with these new features.

Ready to take your Midjourney workflow to the next level? Discover how the Midjourney Automation Suite by TitanXT can help you automate and refine your image creation process.