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

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

3. What does Anne warn about doing with your characters?
(a) Placing them in an improper set.
(b) Giving them only one page of description.
(c) Getting them to do something because it is convenient to the plot.
(d) Letting them speak in dialect.

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

5. What is the way to hold a reader's attention?
(a) Dialogue.
(b) Pictures.
(c) Good plots.
(d) Drama.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is Anne's first suggestion about writing dialogue?

2. Where does Anne tell her students to start with their writing?

3. At what age did Anne start writing?

4. When writing towards a scene, why may you find it is all wrong when you finish it?

5. When Anne showed up at the Special Olympics to write an article, did she know what she was going to write?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. 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?

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

6. How did Anne accomplish a very believable gardener in her novel, when she cannot even keep a houseplant alive?

7. 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?

8. How does Anne say perfectionism affects writing?

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

10. How does Anne state dialogue affects a reader?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 996 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample