Impressionistic Writing

im·pres·sion·ism
Pronunciation: im-'pre-sh&-"ni-z&m
Function: noun
1. often capitalized: a theory or practice in painting especially among French painters of about 1870 of depicting the natural appearances of objects by means of dabs or strokes of primary unmixed colors in order to simulate actual reflected light
2. a: the depiction (as in literature) of scene, emotion, or character by details intended to achieve a vividness or effectiveness more by evoking subjective and sensory impressions than by recreating an objective reality
b: a style of musical composition designed to create subtle moods and impressions

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I have a deadline coming up that is for an impressionistic resume based on a location of our choosing. The word 'resume' initially confused me because, to me, a resume is what the English would refer to as a CV. However, it is not a list of my multiple part-time jobs and my educational experience - it is an atypical essay that isn't really an essay at all.

Impressionistic writing is not something I have regularly encountered - and certainly not attempted to write myself - but many may be familiar with it as it is a format used by Jack Kerouac. I have found it difficult but enjoyable for a number of reasons.

Difficult, firstly, because impressionistic writing is not as concerned with structure and format as typical essay writing or literary work. Having come straight from an undergraduate degree throughout which I wrote about thirty essays of various lengths and a dissertation, it has been a very hard habit to break.

This exercise was also unexpectedly rewarding. Words have more emphasis placed on them when describing things impressionistically. My writing was forced to become a bit more poetic and I was conscious of how carefully I was picking my words. I am a very technical writer and I have found that this somewhat fragmented form has temporarily released me from that.

Impressionistic writing flows like the writer's consciousness, meaning that things do not necessarily have a given order. When I think of stream-of-consciousness writing, I immediately recall reading Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse for a unit on Classical English Literature that I did in my first year of university. She is an author many people consider to write this way and I agree. Impressionistic writing is about describing something with all your senses and your feelings towards the place. You can inspire certain moods with it as often the descriptions are very vivid and make it easy to imagine that you are standing in the writer's shoes. The writer is not concerned with presenting something as accurately as possible because it is personal - it is their impression of a person, place, or thing. Sentences are not perfect and many are short, perhaps even consisting of a single word. The beginning, middle, and end are not always clear and may not follow each other in a typical narrative style.

What helps, of course, is having a very beautiful and unique location to write about. Here is a photograph of the place that I chose for this assignment.