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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 2.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What happened in Bridgeport, Connecticut one morning in April, 1987?
(a) The author sustained a hairline fracture.
(b) A writer was killed.
(c) A building collapsed.
(d) A Rabbi went to prayers.

2. Who does Dillard say that she believes to be one of the most prolific writers who has ever lived?
(a) William Shakespeare.
(b) Edgar Allen Poe.
(c) Thomas Mann.
(d) James Patterson.

3. What does Dillard describe as 'a net for catching days' in Chapter 2?
(a) Clocks.
(b) A schedule.
(c) Dreams.
(d) A journal.

4. When Dillard relays a story about a cabdriver singing a boring song, why did the driver sing it twice?
(a) He was stalling for time.
(b) It was a throw-away song.
(c) He wanted to bore the author.
(d) It had taken him a long time to get it right.

5. What does Dillard say that the printed word cannot compete with?
(a) Music.
(b) The movies.
(c) Travel.
(d) People.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Dillard say that she feels a writer must do about feeling one's work in progress is either magnificent or abominable?

2. As explained by Dillard in Chapter 1, what must be done to a piece of writing after the first draft is finished?

3. What does Dillard's "line of words" do with random pictures in the writer's mind?

4. Who claimed to have written for twenty hours a day?

5. Where does the "line of words" go at the end of Chapter 1?

(see the answer key)

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