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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. Who once said, "Which is the work in which he hasn't surrendered, under dire difficulty, the best thing he meant to have kept"?

2. What do television and films do to the body's senses, according to Dillard?

3. Which author would only write poetry when he was '...rather out of health'?

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

5. What does Dillard compare writing to in the first paragraph of the book?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. When Dillard heard a June bug bumping up against the carrel window one night, what did the noise bring her to realize?

3. Why did the inchworm in Dillard's story keep asking itself, "What! No further"?

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

5. 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?

6. How does Dillard describe the way in which a writer might start the process of writing a book?

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

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. How does Dillard say that she defines the meaning of schedules, in Chapter 2?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In working-class France, when an apprentice was hurt, the more experienced worker told him that "it is the trade entering his body." What is meant by this statement? How can art or creativity enter the body? How must a writer accommodate herself to the writing?

Essay Topic 2

In Chapter 6, Dillard explains the haunting aspects of the island on Haro Strait. What haunted Dillard about the island? What is it about these aspects of the island that can be related to the writing life in general?

Essay Topic 3

Explain the vision of what a projected work of art is, whether it be writing or painting. How does the vision lead one to a finished product?

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