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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Anne say must first happen before we can recognize others for who they are?
(a) Watch them for a year.
(b) Visit with them for a few hours.
(c) Compassionately knowing who you are.
(d) Ask them who they think they really are, it is so telling.

2. What does the image of putting an octopus to bed describe?
(a) Exactly what it says, putting an octopus to bed.
(b) Solving problems in a final draft.
(c) Making all the voices quiet.
(d) Putting the nursing home residents to bed.

3. What does Anne warn about doing with your characters?
(a) Giving them only one page of description.
(b) Placing them in an improper set.
(c) Getting them to do something because it is convenient to the plot.
(d) Letting them speak in dialect.

4. What is Ethan Canin's idea of the most valuable thing about writing?
(a) A strong plot.
(b) Using a sanserif font.
(c) Good dialog.
(d) A likeable narrator.

5. How does Anne describe writing for herself and most other writers she knows?
(a) Dewy and thrilled.
(b) Rapturous.
(c) Not rapturous.
(d) Elegant.

6. At what age did Anne start writing?
(a) Eight.
(b) Thirty.
(c) Five.
(d) Eleven.

7. How does knowledge of your characters emerge, according to Anne?
(a) Like a Polaroid, it takes time to know them.
(b) Like a sunrise, full of beauty and splendor.
(c) Characters come after you finish a good outline.
(d) Quickly and easily.

8. What are great language tools that explain the unknown in terms of the known to the reader?
(a) Metaphors.
(b) Similes.
(c) Plots.
(d) A garden and river.

9. What is at least half the battle Anne faces in her daily writing?
(a) Quieting the critical voices.
(b) All the characters talking at one time.
(c) Having enough paper in the printer.
(d) Writing a bad first draft.

10. How does Anne define perfectionism?
(a) An abundantly jealous form of writing.
(b) Chewing gum will relieve it.
(c) The only way to write.
(d) A mean, frozen form of idealism.

11. What does the one-inch picture frame remind her of?
(a) All she has to do is write as much as she can see through the one-inch picture frame.
(b) How big her mole is getting.
(c) That she only has to write one inch of words that day.
(d) How she is too old for orthodontia.

12. What does Alice Adams' ABDCE formula stand for, in writing a short story?
(a) Action, Background, Development, Climax, and Ending.
(b) Asides, Background, Drama, Characters, and Encoding.
(c) Alice's Books Do Create Excitement.
(d) Action, Background, Characters, Drama, and Ending.

13. What two qualities are needed to communicate effectively according to Anne?
(a) Compassion and high morals.
(b) Good penmanship and excellent dialect.
(c) Respect and compassion.
(d) Respect and agressiveness.

14. What does Anne say writers want to happen to a reader as they read about a character?
(a) For the reader to have compassion for the character.
(b) Recognize how descriptive the character is.
(c) For the reader to be able to see what a wonderful writer has done with the character's dialect.
(d) Recognition of self within the character.

15. When Anne showed up at the Special Olympics to write an article, did she know what she was going to write?
(a) She had no idea of what the finished article would be.
(b) Yes, about a girl on crutches.
(c) Yes, she was going to write a food review about the hot dogs there.
(d) No, she was not even very interested.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is a plot treatment?

2. What does Anne say you have to get over, or you will not go far in your writing?

3. What is Anne's second suggestion about writing dialogue?

4. In Anne's experience, and the experience of other writer's she knows, how easily does plot structure come?

5. What movie line does Anne suggest as a good one to tape to the wall of your office?

(see the answer keys)

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