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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What ended the chess game for Dillard in Chapter 2?

2. Which book does Dillard say she discovered that she touched every night in the darkened library to find her room?

3. How long does it generally take to write a book?

4. What did Dillard do one night in the rare book room of the Virginia library?

5. Dillard refers to writing as changing "..from an expression of your notions to an epistemological tool." What does epistemological mean?

Short Essay Questions

1. What, outside Dillard's library window, proved to cause the most distraction to her work?

2. Describe the inside of Dillard's study on Cape Cod.

3. In Chapter 1, what does Dillard say she thinks of as the usual reasons for an author getting stuck in a book?

4. When the cab driver in New York sang songs with Dillard, why did he sing one dull song twice?

5. Why did a ritual slaughterer bid goodbye to his wife and children every morning as if it were his last, in Chapter 1?

6. When Dillard glanced in the daylight at one of the stacks of books she regularly touched to feel her way at night, what surprised her?

7. Dillard describes the scenes from her desk at the library in Virginia. Why does she say these scenes are detrimental to her work?

8. What decision did Dillard make to finally shut herself off from all distractions at the library carrel?

9. Why does Dillard feel that an appealing workplace for a writer should be avoided?

10. Why does Dillard believe a writer often wants to refrain from throwing away the beginnings of the work she has created?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What advice did Dillard give to a reader asking if she would teach him to write? Describe the two different ways in which Dillard explains her advice.

Essay Topic 2

In Chapter 4, Dillard's Smith-Corona typewriter erupted in smoke and flames during an earthquake. What does the Beckett quote at the beginning of the chapter tell us about Dillard's personality or character? What could the fired-up typewriter be a metaphor for? Why?

Essay Topic 3

Dillard taped up her pen drawing of the scene outside her window to the venetian blinds. Explain how this helped her concentrate on her work.

What was missing in the drawing of the scene that was really outside the window? Why wasn't it enough for her to just close the blinds?

(see the answer keys)

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