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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. How does Anne define clutter?
(a) Something to be swept under the rug.
(b) Makes her hold her breath.
(c) Wonderfully fertile ground.
(d) Easier to deal with if you put in specific piles.

2. What does Anne say you have to get over, or you will not go far in your writing?
(a) Jealousy.
(b) Hypochondria.
(c) Perfectionism.
(d) Paranoia.

3. What is the question Anne's students always ask?
(a) How can you put an octopus to bed?
(b) How can I write like Dr. Suess?
(c) How do you know when you are done?
(d) What happens when a character changes?

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

5. 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) No, she was not even very interested.
(c) Yes, she was going to write a food review about the hot dogs there.
(d) Yes, about a girl on crutches.

Short Answer Questions

1. How did Anne feel after the basketball game?

2. What do we want out of important characters, such as a narrator?

3. In working on set design for your book, what does Anne suggest you imagine yourself as?

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

5. Where does plot grow from?

Short Essay Questions

1. According to Anne, how does knowledge of a character develop?

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

3. How does Anne say perfectionism affects writing?

4. How does Anne state dialogue affects a reader?

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

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

7. With every work there will always be more that you could have done. What does Anne warn us against with this thought?

8. According to Anne, how are we able to see the underlying essence of a person?

9. What was Natalie Goldberg's response when asked for the best possible writing advice she had to offer? How true is this advice?

10. 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?

(see the answer keys)

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