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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. When a character takes on a characteristic that you have no good experience in, what should you do?
(a) Look at your plot, it will tell you what to write.
(b) Google the characteristic, everything online is true.
(c) Wing it, the readers will not know.
(d) Contact someone who has this life experience.

3. What is Anne's father's occupation?
(a) Hippie.
(b) Librarian.
(c) Real Estate Agent.
(d) Writer.

4. What did Anne's father tell his students to read?
(a) All the great books and plays they could get their hands on.
(b) Shakespeare.
(c) Only Thurber.
(d) A few poems and hardback books.

5. Aside from talking to people, what are other ways to gather ideas for set design?
(a) Going to visit and reading books about the set your are trying to design.
(b) Take a nap and dream about it, or watch a movie.
(c) Reading a book on the subject and then meditating.
(d) You need only to look to the plot for your set design.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is Anne's first useful concept about?

2. What does Alice Adams' ABDCE formula stand for, in writing a short story?

3. How did Anne feel after the basketball game?

4. How does knowledge of your characters emerge, according to Anne?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Readers need a sense that an important character, such as a narrator, is reliable. How does Anne suggest that writers accomplish this?

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

4. How did Anne's article on the Special Olympics start off? How did it turn out?

5. Alice Adams suggests the ABDCE formula for writing a short story. How can formulas be a great way to get us started?

6. Where does Anne find out something about false starts?

7. In Part 2, The Writing Frame of Mind, Section 1, Looking Around, what is writing about, and how do we see the writer?

8. How does Anne suggest we can free ourselves from perfectionism?

9. 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?

10. How does Anne say perfectionism affects writing?

(see the answer keys)

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