Creating Personal Vignettes 

 
•​ LIST YOUR FIRSTS​ • 
Take  a  moment  to  consider  the  new  experiences  you’ve  had  over  the  course  of  the  past  year. 
Think  about  the  things  you  did  for  the  very  first  time.  Maybe  you  moved  to  a  new  city,  started  a 
new passion project, or fell in love.  
 
✎ Use the space below to record your five firsts from the past year. 
 
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•​ DESCRIBE A MOMENT​ • 
Select  a  first  from  the  list  above  and  think  of  a  specific  moment  from  that  experience  that  you 
wish  to  unpack  further.  Once  you’ve  selected  your  first  and  thought  of  your  moment,  take some 
time  to  respond  to  the questions below. You’ll pull from these responses later when you sit down 
to write your poem.  
 
✎ What was the physical setting?  

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✎ What do you remember hearing?  

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✎ What do you remember seeing? 

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 Creating Personal Vignettes 
 
✎ What do you remember feeling?  

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•​ WRITE YOUR PARAGRAPH​ • 
Using  your  responses  to  the questions above, draft a short paragraph describing your moment in 
plain language. Start at the beginning of the experience and work your way through to the end.  
 
✎ Write your paragraph.  

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 Creating Personal Vignettes 
 
•​ WRITE YOUR POEM​ • 
Now  that  you’ve  done  all  of  the  legwork,  it’s  time  to  write  your  poem!  When  you  wrote  the 
paragraph  above,  you  wrote  about  an  experience  from  start  to  finish  in  plain  language.  Now, 
you’ll  narrow  the  lens  to  focus  on  a  very specific moment from that experience and write about it 
using  poetic  language.  Alison,  for  example,  wrote  her  paragraph about meeting her daughter for 
the  first  time  but  narrowed  her  focus  in  her  poem  to  write  about  what  it  felt  like  to  hold  her 
daughter for the first time.  
 
Think  about  how  you  might  be  able  to  narrow  the  focus  on  your  own  big  picture  moment  and 
translate it into a poem using some of the poetic devices mentioned in the class:  
 
● Simile​: Comparing two things using “like” or “as” 
● Metaphor​: Comparing two things without using “like” or “as” 
● Personification​: Attributing human characteristics to something nonhuman 
 
✎ Use the space below to write your poem. 

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 Creating Personal Vignettes 
 
•​ SELECT YOUR VIGNETTE​ • 
It’s finally time to create your personal vignette! To do this, you’ll select one or two lines from your 
poem  that  can  tell  a  complete  story  without  the  context  of  the  rest  of  the  poem.  Look  for  lines 
that  ring  true  to  you  and  your  story  or  take  on  new  meaning  when  isolated.  The  most  important 
thing to keep in mind is that these lines should be capable of standing on their own.  
 
✎  Go  back  through  your  poem  above  and  highlight  the  lines  that  stand  out  to  you.  Once 
you’ve selected a few lines to serve as your personal vignette, write them down below.  
 
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