ThatPainter is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn More
Midjourney Patchwork is an experimental, multiplayer, AI-supported infinite canvas for building fictional worlds. Instead of treating it as another prompt box, use it as a workspace where notes, characters, factions, places, events, references, and generated images become connected “scraps.” You can explore possibilities with AI, choose what becomes canon, and keep the visual development of a world beside its story logic.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Patchwork is a research-preview experience, and its interface and availability can change. The instructions below reflect the official guide published December 11, 2024; check the live interface before relying on a particular button or model behavior.
Free tools Windows power users keep installed
One-click scans. No signup required.
What Patchwork does
Patchwork combines a pannable, zoomable canvas with mixed-initiative AI assistance. You place information on the board, select related scraps, ask the system to elaborate an idea, and generate images from chosen context. Midjourney’s research describes scraps as card-like text or image elements for concepts such as characters, factions, places, props, and events: the Patchwork research paper.
#1 Best Overall
It is useful for novels, screenplays, tabletop campaigns, game concepts, film and animation preproduction, teaching, and any team that needs to discover a setting while organizing it. It is not a finished manuscript tool, lore database, project-management system, or guarantee of visual continuity.
Why the format helps
- Text and images stay in the same navigable space.
- Links show which details belong to a character, place, faction, or event.
- AI can ask questions and suggest directions when your intent is incomplete.
- Multiple people can work in one world and see one another’s cursors.
Access and first setup
- Open patchwork.midjourney.com.
- Sign in with your Midjourney identity. The current login flow indicates that you may need to connect a Google account through Midjourney profile settings; recheck your account page if authentication fails.
- Enter the lobby, open a sandbox, or use a portal to travel to an existing world.
- Confirm whether your account has access. Do not assume every Midjourney subscription includes Patchwork; the official page describes it as experimental.
Midjourney’s current site displays V8.2 messaging, while its documentation landing page still highlights V8.1. The Patchwork guide does not establish which model currently serves every action, so treat model behavior as version-sensitive: Midjourney Explore and Midjourney documentation.
Learn the canvas and scraps
Drag empty space to pan; scroll or pinch to zoom. Select the toolbox, then click the board to place a new entity or text scrap. Drag scraps to reposition them. Shift-click or Shift-drag selects multiple scraps. Delete with the on-screen control or the Delete key. Edit text directly inside a text scrap. Use Ctrl+Z on Windows or Cmd+Z on Mac to undo.
Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteThe December 2024 guide reported no redo and no longer undo history. Save before major rearrangements because that limitation may have changed—or may still apply.
Common scrap types
- Notes and authoritative world-bible text
- Characters, factions, places, events, and props
- Generated images
- Style-reference and character-reference scraps
- Portals to other worlds
Use relationships as structure
Link a detail, description, or image to the entity it explains. Unlink material that is speculative or attached incorrectly. Gather collects an entity’s linked details; double-clicking an entity selects its detail scraps as a group. Copy places selected scraps in an inventory so recurring elements can travel between worlds.
Build a four-scrap world seed
Begin small. Create one scrap for each anchor, then expand only what earns a place in the setting.
| Anchor | Example |
|---|---|
| World premise | A civilization lives inside a slowly rotating moon-sized machine. |
| Primary location | The Clockwork Basin, where gravity changes every thirteen hours. |
| Central character | Iria Vale, a maintenance diver who hears messages in the coolant. |
| Central tension | The ruling guild plans to stop rotation to prevent a predicted catastrophe. |
This gives Patchwork meaningful relationships without burying the useful context under dozens of disconnected cards.
The Tool Desk
Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Arrange the board deliberately
Use a spatial convention collaborators can understand: cosmology and history at top left, factions and politics at top right, the main location in the center, characters at bottom left, references and scene ideas at bottom right, and unresolved or rejected material at the far edge. This is an editorial method, not a special Patchwork mode.
Use Tell Me More for controlled ideation
Select a character, setting, image, or part of a text scrap and choose Tell Me More. The action can elaborate the whole element or focus on the text you highlighted. Edit useful output, delete weak suggestions, and rewrite accepted ideas into concise, authoritative entries.
For the Clockwork Basin, ask:
- Who controls access to the machine’s inner organs?
- What resource keeps the city alive?
- Which district is forbidden, and why?
- What event made residents distrust outsiders?
Treat answers as proposals, not automatic canon. Label scraps [CANON], [OPTION], [QUESTION], or [REJECTED]; keep one authoritative summary for each major entity.
Generate images with Paint
- Select the text scrap describing the subject or scene.
- Add only relevant supporting images, style references, or character references.
- Choose Paint in the action bar.
- Drag or click where the result should appear.
- Review and edit the proposed prompt before generating.
- Generate alternatives, keep the strongest candidate, and link it to the entity it represents.
A single selected text scrap can become the prompt; multiple selected scraps can be combined as generation context, as described in the research paper. Selecting everything is rarely best. Include the subject, relevant place and character information, and one or two references.
The Tool Desk
Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Rewrite vague lore into visual instructions first: “A narrow market inside the exposed rib cage of a colossal orbital creature, vendors suspended from cable bridges, mineral lanterns, damp metallic surfaces, crowded vertical composition, restrained teal-and-amber palette, no modern signage.”
Rank #4
Keep style and characters coherent
Style references
Create a world-style anchor early. The official guide recommends selecting one or two consistent styles rather than letting every image drift. Keep regional variation deliberate—for example, salt haze and bleached wood in coastal settlements versus polished black stone and geometric banners in an imperial district. Record which references informed important images.
Character references
- Write the character’s role, motivation, age range, physical markers, and relationships.
- Generate exploratory portraits.
- Choose one or two identity anchors.
- Create a character-reference scrap when the interface offers that option; the guide also describes Infer Character.
- Use the written description and reference together for new scenes.
References guide generation; they do not guarantee continuity. Reject attractive images that change defining traits, and keep a written description alongside every visual anchor.
Turn accidents into canon
- Generate several alternatives.
- Spot an unexpected detail that strengthens the premise.
- Ask Tell Me More about that detail.
- Decide whether it belongs in the world.
- Rewrite it as a clear canon entry and link it to the relevant entity.
- Generate supporting visuals from the approved entry.
This preserves human authorship while using AI for discovery. Keep rejected concepts away from active context so later generations do not mistake them for truth.
Collaborate without losing authorship
The guide describes private, viewable, and editable world states, invitations by Midjourney ID, shared discussion scraps, and real-time cursors.
| Permission | Best use |
|---|---|
| Private | Solo drafting or confidential client work |
| Viewable | Feedback without structural edits |
| Editable | Active co-creation by a trusted team |
Assign one person or a clearly defined group to make canon decisions. Use discussion scraps for questions and decisions, label alternatives, and save a version before accepting substantial changes.
Save and back up the world
Patchwork can save a JSON file containing the scraps in the current world. That preserves canvas structure, but do not assume it is a complete archive of images, permissions, links, and metadata unless the current interface confirms those contents.
- Save JSON before major restructuring.
- Download important images separately.
- Copy approved canon into an external world-bible document.
- Record the date, collaborators, and Midjourney version.
Fix common workflow problems
Login failure
Account-linking requirements may have changed. Check the Patchwork entry page and Midjourney account settings, including the Google connection indicated by the current flow.
Context is ignored
- Select fewer, more relevant scraps.
- State the missing relationship directly in a text scrap.
- Make the place, character, or visual constraint specific.
- Run Paint again with the smaller context set.
Contradictions spread
Maintain one authoritative scrap per entity, mark alternatives, unlink incorrect details, and periodically rewrite scattered material into a concise summary. Never ask the AI to infer canon from a board full of rejected ideas.
The board is cluttered
Use spatial zones, Gather, links, a speculation area, and inventory. Save before reorganizing.
Undo is not enough
Use Ctrl+Z or Cmd+Z for the documented undo action, but maintain JSON and external canon backups because the guide reported no redo or extended history.
When another tool is better
| Tool | Use it when | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Midjourney Editor | You need to move, resize, or edit an existing image. | Image editing, not a storyworld canvas. |
| Pan and Zoom Out | You want to extend a composition or reveal its surroundings. | Focused image expansion, not lore organization. |
| Miro or FigJam | Your team needs mature diagrams, comments, and workshops. | You must connect separate AI and image tools. |
| World Anvil or Kanka | You need searchable lore, timelines, permissions, and durable reference. | Less improvisational and image-led. |
The practical verdict
Use Patchwork as an ideation and organization layer: seed a small world, expand selectively, paint from deliberate context, link approved material, and collaborate under explicit canon rules. Keep a separate world bible and asset backup. Patchwork can help you discover a coherent setting, but continuity, authorship, permissions, and final production decisions remain human responsibilities.
Quick Recap
