View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Which poem did Dillard often read aloud?

2. Who did Dillard get a visit from in Chapter 3 that was eye-awakening for her?

3. How did Dillard's sentence ('He led him into the water') from the book she was working on during a northeaster sound to her?

4. What does Dillard say that she believes may well be a writer's only firsthand experience?

5. Who did Dillard's neighbor, Glenn, tell her about when she returned to the island in late June?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who was Paul Glenn?

2. Why does Dillard say that the life of the mind of a writer is hard to be called "living"?

3. What does Dillard mean in Chapter 5 when she writes, '...instead we watch television and miss the show'?

4. Why does Dillard advise writers not to hoard a good idea for a later place in a book being written or for another book?

5. Why does Dillard say that she needed more materials than a pencil and paper in order to write something like a second draft for a thirty-page chapter?

6. The next-to-last sentence of Chapter 5 reads, 'Shall we go rowing again, we who believe we may indeed row off the edge and fall?' What does this refer to?

7. How does a work in progress turn on its author, according to Dillard?

8. Why does Dillard say it makes more sense to write one big book than to write many stories or essays?

9. How does Dillard say that she believes a writer must control his or her own energies in order to work?

10. Why did the island on Haro Strait haunt Dillard?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What was Dillard, as a reader, looking for and hoping to find when reading? What emotions and insights did Dillard hope to find? What does Dillard believe many people do that inspires her to write "..instead we watch television and miss the show"?

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,015 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample