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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Where does Anne tell her students to start with their writing?
(a) Poems.
(b) Third grade.
(c) Childhood.
(d) A near-death experience.

2. What does Anne say that there is ecstasy in?
(a) Paying attention.
(b) Ripples in the water.
(c) Compassionate detachment.
(d) Wine and chocolate.

3. What is a recurring problem that Anne sees in her students?
(a) They do not have good agents.
(b) They are too busy writing to listen to her class.
(c) They are bad spellers.
(d) They really want to be published, and kind of want to write.

4. Where does plot grow from?
(a) A good topsoil.
(b) A one-inch picture frame.
(c) Characters.
(d) A good outline.

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

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

7. When you start think there is one more thing you could do, what should you remind yourself?
(a) Your characters have evolved, time to move on.
(b) The octopus is snoring, time to move on.
(c) Dr. Suess refuses to eat the broccoli.
(d) Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor.

8. What is Anne's comment on messes?
(a) Messes do not say anything about who we are.
(b) Hire a housekeeper to clean up your messes.
(c) They are an artist's true friend.
(d) Messes should be kept to a minimum.

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

10. According to Anne, what is the way to "nail" a character?
(a) Set design.
(b) Plot.
(c) Dialogue.
(d) Hammers.

11. In Part 1, Section 6, Polaroids, who was the self-proclaimed "cool man?"
(a) Sam.
(b) A boy against a fence.
(c) The referee of the basketball game.
(d) A tall African American man.

12. What image does Anne use to help her gather dialog for characters?
(a) One-inch picture frame.
(b) Hammers.
(c) Dr. Suess.
(d) Broccoli.

13. When talking with a subject expert about kitchens, what are good questions to ask about the kitchen?
(a) What were the sights, sounds, and smells like?
(b) What were the sights and sounds like?
(c) How best to keep stainless steel appliances clean.
(d) What were the smells and stains like?

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

15. How else does Anne say you might you know you are done?
(a) Your check arrives in the mail.
(b) You have done the best you can do, and have no more to give.
(c) The plot has come together beautifully.
(d) Your editor tells you that you are done.

Short Answer Questions

1. What are great language tools that explain the unknown in terms of the known to the reader?

2. How did Anne feel after the basketball game?

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

4. What does Anne say can reveal a character better than pages of description?

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

(see the answer keys)

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