Today, we were led in a writing workshop by Kris. She presented us with a PowerPoint that explained what a vignette was and the five steps to writing one. A vignette is essentially a snapshot with words, never more than 800. We wrote a practice vignette based of off an image at the end of the PowerPoint. Mine is below.

River water rapidly flows across large boulders. An adult brown bear stands atop a boulder, patiently they are all still naturally created colors, meaning all these colors are slightly muted and deeper, than the bright shades waiting for the perfect opportunity to easily catch a fish. The clear, fresh water allows for an easy visual into the water, letting the bear know precisely when his dinner has arrived so he can dive in. the rapids entirely surrounded by beautiful plant life. Evergreen trees stand tall throughout the area, their needles a lovely, deep green color, proving the reasoning behind their name. The other trees present themselves in an array of autumn colors. Some tree leaves have turned red, some have turned yellow, and some have turned orange. They are all still naturally created, meaning all of these colors are slightly muted and deeper. Looking up from ground, apparent elevation is visible. Thousands of feet away, a line of mountains border each side of the narrow river. Even taller mountains than those are present at the very edge of all that can be seen. These mountains have tops that have been buried entirely in pure, white snow.

Then, we had to write a vignette based off of a photo of a creature we were required to take at Cox Arboretum.

My chosen creature, a Garter Snake.

A garter snake lies peacefully as a lightweight on some bushes. The snake is coiled up, not in motion. Its head is entirely black, but starting from its neck all the way down, three yellow stripes are visible. One stripe is directly along the top of the snake’s spine. The other two are split into one on each side of the snake. The length of its body was a minimum of two feet. Observing the creature calmly was key. The last thing anyone wants to happen is to startle or disturb it. Provoking it when it is being no threat is just unfair and potentially dangerous. So, the best thing is just to let it be.