View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. What is Anne's second suggestion about writing dialogue?
(a) Your characters should always speak in dialect.
(b) Your characters should be identifiable by what they say.
(c) Dialogue is not a needed break from all the writing.
(d) Your characters should never speak in dialect.

3. Anne tells her students they can use paranoia as wonderful material, and then recites a poem. Who is the author of the poem?
(a) Phillip Lopate.
(b) C. S. Lewis.
(c) Buster Brown.
(d) She is.

4. What is the basic formula for drama?
(a) Setup, buildup, payoff.
(b) Setup, switch, sendoff.
(c) Buildup, payoff, setup.
(d) There is no formula, drama naturally occurs.

5. What is a plot treatment?
(a) It treats the false starts in a book.
(b) A road map of the beginning and end of a chapter, and how the end grows into the following chapter.
(c) A treatment of the dialog in the book.
(d) It is something done by a big plotting machine.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Anne, what is one thing that can make a book very tiring to read?

2. Where did Anne's father teach his class?

3. When you start think there is one more thing you could do, what should you remind yourself?

4. Who are the two authors that Anne says have written well about plot?

5. What does Anne tell her students the reason to write is?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the one-inch picture frame on Anne's desk put her in the mind to write a short assignment?

2. In Part 1, Section 12, Plot Treatment, Anne had been working on a book for over two years that still was not acceptable to her editor. How does she describe the plot treatment she wrote, which was accepted by her editor, and gained her the last of her advance?

3. How did having a mother and father who read, and a father who was a writer, affect Anne's life?

4. In college, Anne found a community in which she might fit in. Why did she felt a sense of community in college?

5. When Anne was writing food reviews, how did allowing herself to write bad first drafts help her?

6. How does Anne say perfectionism affects writing?

7. How does Anne suggest writers offer hope to readers?

8. When Anne's students tell her they do not know where to start, she tells them to start with their childhood. How is this helpful?

9. What does Anne suggest doing with the feeling of paranoia?

10. At some point you may need to design a set for your characters that you know nothing about. What avenues does Anne suggest taking to gain the knowledge you need?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,016 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample