Writing a Vignette
English 102
Ms. Floyd
Spring 2007
In A Handbook to Literature. 3rd. ed. C. Hugh Holman defines the term vignette as
[a] sketch or essay or brief narrative characterized by great precision and delicate accuracy of composition. The term is borrowed from that used for unbordered but delicate decorative designs for a book, and it implies writing with comparable grace and economy. It may be a separate whole or a portion of a larger work. The term is also applied to very brief short-short stories, less than five hundred words in length. (551)
Assignment: Write a vignette in which you recapture a moment of time (approximately 300-500 words). Concentrate on details.This is not a narrative essay. There will be neither an introduction nor a conclusion, as in the essays of English 101. There will be less telling, more showing. (For example, don't write: Mary was nervous. Try: Mary had butterflies in her stomach, and her hands were cold and clammy.)
Try to think of this moment as a dramatic scene in prose form. Pretend that you are a set designer. Use words to construct the set. Create images that appeal to the senses. Let your characters speak; let them yell; let them whisper.
The vignette could be autobiographical with elements of fiction. The narrator could be the center of the action, or the narrator could be an observer. If this vignette is, indeed, autobiographical, you may want to write it in the third person, not the first person, substituting he or she for I.
Play with verb tense; however, be consistent. If you switch verb tense, have a good reason for doing so.
You could write the story in chronological order, or you could play with the arrangement of events, using flashback.
Use dialogue, interior monologue. For interior monologue, try to avoid "he thought to himself." Perhaps use quotation marks around words the character says, no quotation marks around words the character thinks. Perhaps use italics to distinguish a character's thoughts from his speech. Give characters a different style of speech to indicate level of education. Use contractions and colloquialisms in dialogue. Also, if you want, use errors in agreement in dialogue. Play with spelling.
In dialogue, you may leave out some "he said, she said." They usually aren't necessary after the narrator has established a pattern. If you want to show one character butting in on the words of another, try using a dash ("but--"). If you want to show a character "trailing off," use three or four spaced dots ("trailing off . . .").
Include sensory imagery if you want your "picture" to be in color rather than in black and white.
Make names count. All characters do not have to have names.
Remember: when writing fiction, show, don't tell.
Avoid stereotypes, melodrama, soap opera, sentimentality.Suggested process:
Generate ideas: Reach back into your memory. (It could be as far back as when you were five or as recent as an hour ago.) List at least ten experiences that you could write about. Of the ten, put a star beside three experiences that you would most like to write about, keeping your audience and your purpose in mind. Of those three, put an asterisk beside the experience that you would most like to write about. Free write for twenty minutes.
Plan a skeleton (outline).
Flesh out with details.
Write the title. The title may be implicit, suggestive; it may be lifted out of the writing.
Add dialogue.
Lie (embellish the truth).
Appeal to the senses. Include details that the reader can see, smell, hear, touch, taste.
Put yourself in your reader's shoes. Have you left out any details that are important to the reader's understanding?
Pay special attention to the beginning and the end and their effect on your reader. Do they grab the reader's attention? How does the reader feel when he or she has finished reading?Remember to have fun!
Giving credit where credit is due: I, too, sat in an English 102 classroom as a student here at Richard Bland College. The vignette was the first assignment that my classmates and I were given. The process that I am suggesting to you is the same process that my professor suggested to my classmates and me. In fact, much of the wording on this page came from the notes that I took as a student; however, since, as students, we don't usually put quotation marks around the notes that we take, I have not used quotation marks here. I have no idea where her words end and my words begin. Furthermore, as students in a particular discipline, we begin to take on the "speak" of our discipline. I learned most of my "teacher-speak" from my professors, here at RBC and at other colleges and universities.