View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Anne's editor loved the characters in her book, but what was the problem with the book?
(a) The garden was not believable.
(b) She had false starts all over the place.
(c) The dialect was all wrong.
(d) She had not brought them all together.

2. What is Anne's first useful concept about?
(a) Short assignments.
(b) Sharp pencils.
(c) Having lots of wine and chocolate around.
(d) Ergonomic keyboards.

3. When will you know your characters, according to Anne?
(a) When your editor tells you who they are.
(b) When you first sit down and start to write about them.
(c) After teatime.
(d) Weeks or months after you started working with them.

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

5. How does a writer end up with a good second draft or a terrific third draft?
(a) By drinking lots of wine.
(b) By getting a good agent.
(c) By hiring an excellent editor.
(d) By writing a bad first draft.

6. The school lunches writing assignment combines which two pieces of writing advice from Anne?
(a) Get started and consult a hypnotist.
(b) Short assignments and bad first drafts.
(c) Read poetry and drink wine.
(d) Eat chocolate and take plenty of naps.

7. How does plot fall together?
(a) As you conform your characters to the plot in your outline.
(b) As you listen to jazz music and drink wine.
(c) Piece by piece, like a puzzle.
(d) As you listen to your characters and watch them move.

8. How does Anne tell her students to train the unconscious to kick in?
(a) Sit down to write at approximately the same time every day.
(b) Phone an off-putting friend, that will get your creative juices going.
(c) Listen to classical music.
(d) Drink wine and eat chocolate, then write.

9. How does Anne describe the Polaroid?
(a) Anybody can take a Polariod picture, as long as there is film in the camera.
(b) Quick and easy, just like writing.
(c) You are not supposed to know what the picture looks like until it finishes developing.
(d) You point and shoot at what you think you want, but it does not always turn out as expected.

10. What movie line does Anne suggest as a good one to tape to the wall of your office?
(a) "Hey - lighten up, Francis."
(b) "From sun up to sun down I am the best writer in town."
(c) "Climb every mountain."
(d) "Jeremiah was a bullfrog."

11. What is on Anne's desk that reminds her of short assignments?
(a) A one-inch picture frame.
(b) A pair of shorts.
(c) A ruler.
(d) A short stubby pencil.

12. Who are the two authors that Anne says have written well about plot?
(a) Flannery O'Conner and Faulkner.
(b) Rosemary Wells and Doreen Cornin.
(c) E. M. Forester and John Gardner.
(d) John Gardner and Faulkner.

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

14. Why does Anne write?
(a) Her father was a writer.
(b) She has read C. S. Lewis.
(c) She is a good typist.
(d) She wants to and she is good at it.

15. In Anne's opinion, who writes bad first drafts?
(a) Reporters.
(b) The birds.
(c) All good writers.
(d) She does.

Short Answer Questions

1. Ten days before Pammy died, she went shopping with Anne. On this excursion Anne figured out what Pammy's essence was. What was it?

2. What does the image of putting an octopus to bed describe?

3. What does Anne say that there is ecstasy in?

4. What is Anne's response when her students ask her for the best writing advice?

5. How does Anne define clutter?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 747 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample