** Created by Catherine Eggleston, HTMMA 2008

Name: _____________________________________________

Date: ____________

Vignette
Definition:

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)
Description:
Vignettes are the literary equivalent of a snapshot [photograph]. ~Wikipedia
When you think of what to include in a vignette, think of capturing the single
image/moment caught by a photograph. You are capturing that exact, precise moment
and nothing else! You are not developing a plot, rather delving into a brief moment in
time.
Characteristics of Vignettes:
1. Show Not Tell
Example:
Telling The room was vacant.
Showing The door opened with a resounding echo that seemed to fill the house.
Cob webs once attached flowed freely in the air as the open door brought light to a well
worn floor. The light gave notice to the peeling paint on the walls and to the silhouettes
once covered by pictures. The new air gave life to a stuffiness that entrapped the room.
Faded and torn white sheets covered once new furniture now drowning in dust.
2. Metaphor
Definition: Comparison of two things, not using like or as
Example: Charles is such a pig!
3. Simile
Definition: Comparison of two things, using like or as
Example: His temper was as explosive as a volcano.

** Created by Catherine Eggleston, HTMMA 2008

4. Personification
Definition: giving human traits (qualities, feelings, action, or characteristics) to
non-living objects (things, colors, qualities, or ideas)
Example: The large rock refused to budge.
5. Alliteration
Definition: repetition of the initial consonant; usually at least twice
Example: The rats rummaged through the raisins ravenously.
6. Repetition
Definition: repeating a word or phrase for emphasis
7. Sensory Details
Definition: sight, sound, smell, taste, touch
Example: (sound) The music was very loud at the rock concert last night. My
ears are still ringing today because the music was very loud at the rock concert
last night.
8. Show Not Tell with Figurative Language
Example:
Telling: It was foggy.
Showing:
The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.
- excerpt from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot

Requirements for each of your vignettes:

1. ALWAYS Show Not Tell by using Sensory Details.
2. You must use at least three of the following characteristics in each of your vignettes:
Simile
Personification
Metaphor
Alliteration
3. Length: - 1 page, single spaced
4. Title (cannot be the assignment name)

Repetition

** Created by Catherine Eggleston, HTMMA 2008

Sample Vignette, Hairs by Sandra Cisneros:

Everybody in our family has different hair. My Papas hair is like a broom, all up
in the air. And me, my hair is lazy. It never obeys barrettes or bands. Carlos hair is
thick and straight. He doesnt need to comb it. Nennys hair is slippery slides out of
your hand. And Kiki, who is the youngest, has hair like fur.
But my mothers hair, my mothers hair, like little rosettes, like little candy circles
all curly and pretty because she pinned it in pincurls all day, sweet to put your nose into
when she is holding you, holding you and your feel safe, is the warm smell of bread
before you bake it, is the smell when she makes room for you on her side of the bed still
warm with her skin, and you sleep near her, the rain outside falling and Papa snoring.
The snoring, the rain, and Mamas hair that smells like bread.
Simile: _________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Metaphor: ______________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Personification: __________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Alliteration: _____________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Repetition: ______________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Show Not Tell/Sensory Details: ____________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

** Created by Catherine Eggleston, HTMMA 2008

Sample Vignette, Chanclas by Sandra Cisneros:

Its me Mama, Mama said. I open and shes there with bags and big boxes. The
new clothes and, yes, shes got the socks and a new slip with a little rose on it and a pinkand-white striped dress. What about the shoes? I forgot. Too late now. Im tired.
Whew!
Six-thirty already and my little cousins baptism is over. All day waiting, the door
locked, dont open up for nobody, and I dont till Mama gets back and buys everything
except the shoes.
Now Uncle Nacho is coming in his car, and we have to hurry to get to Precious
Blood Church quick because thats where the baptism party is, in the basement rented for
today for dancing and tamales and everyones kids running all over the place.
Mama dances, laughs, dances. All of a sudden, Mama is sick. I fan her hot face
with a paper plate. Too many tamales, but Uncle Nacho says too many this and tilts his
thumb to his lips.
Everyone laughing except me, because Im wearing the new dress, pink and white
stripes, and new underclothes and new socks and the old saddle shoes I wear to school,
brown and white, the kind I get every September because they last long and they do. My
feet scuffed and round, and the heels all crooked that look dumb with this dress, so I just
sit.
Meanwhile that boy who is my cousin by first communion or something asks me
to dance and I cant. Just stuff my feet under the metal folding chair stamped Precious
Blood and pick on a wad of brown gum thats stuck beneath the seat. I shake my head
no. My feet are growing bigger and bigger.
Then Uncle Nacho is pulling and pulling my arm and it doesnt matter how new
the dress Mama bought is because my feet are ugly until my uncle who is a liar says, You
are the prettiest girl here, will you dance, but I believe him, and yes, we are dancing, my
Uncle Nacho and me, only I dont want to at first. My feet swell big and heavy like
plungers, but I drag them across the linoleum floor straight center where Uncle wants to
show off the new dance we learned. And Uncle spins me, and my skinny arms bend the
way he taught me, and my mother watches, and my little cousins watch, and the boy who
is my cousin by fir communion watches, and everyone says, wow, who are those two who
dance like in the movies, until I forget that I am wearing only ordinary shows, brown and
white, the kind my mother buys each year for school.
And all I hear is the clapping when the music stops. My uncle and me bow and
he walks me back in my thick shows to my mother who is proud to be my mother. All
night the boy who is a man watches me dance. He watched me dance.
Simile: _________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Metaphor: ______________________________________________________________

** Created by Catherine Eggleston, HTMMA 2008

________________________________________________________________________
Personification: __________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Alliteration: _____________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Repetition: ______________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Show Not Tell/Sensory Details: ____________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

** Created by Catherine Eggleston, HTMMA 2008

Childhood Memory Vignette

(Birth Elementary School)
List at least 5 experiences that you could write about:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
*Put a star next to three experiences that you would most like to write about.
*Turn to the person you are sharing a table with and briefly describe to them your top 3
experiences. Ask for which experience they would most want to read about.
*Put an * next to the 1 experience that you are going to write a vignette about, keeping
your audience and your purpose in mind.
----------------------------------------------Experience: ____________________________________________________________
Outline of Events (be very specific):
*Event:
Sensory/Specific Details:
*Event:
Sensory/Specific Details:
*Event:
Sensory/Specific Details:

** Created by Catherine Eggleston, HTMMA 2008

*Event:
Sensory/Specific Details:
*Event:
Sensory/Specific Details:
*Event:
Sensory/Specific Details:
*Event:
Sensory/Specific Details:
*Event:
Sensory/Specific Details:
*Event:
Sensory/Specific Details:
*Event:
Sensory/Specific Details:
*Event:
Sensory/Specific Details:
*Event:
Sensory/Specific Details:

** Created by Catherine Eggleston, HTMMA 2008

Develop the following characteristics of a vignette about events/sensory-specific details

that you listed above:
Event: _________________________________________________________________
Simile: _________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Event: _________________________________________________________________
Metaphor: ______________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Event: _________________________________________________________________
Personification: __________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Event: _________________________________________________________________
Alliteration: _____________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Event: _________________________________________________________________
Repetition: ______________________________________________________________

** Created by Catherine Eggleston, HTMMA 2008

________________________________________________________________________