POP QUIZ #1

1. Conquer your fear of writing by ___ every day.
a. drinking
b. drooling
c. eating large amounts of food
d. writing

2. Don’t sit around waiting for the ___; start with the small idea and make it big.
a. Big Kahuna
b. grim reaper
c. cable installer
d. Big Idea

3. What most people call writer’s block is really _____
a. constipation
b. Sesame Street
c. butcher block
d. perfectionism...paralysis...procrastination

4. Like cooking, writing requires a good deal of ___
a. Worcestershire sauce
b. chain saw gas
c. Alka-Seltzer
d. planning and coordinating

5. Beware your immediate need to make your writing___
a. rhyme
b. end in a couplet
c. into a Broadway show
d. grammatically correct

6. Stop rejecting your thoughts and start____
a. going for long, moody walks
b. cleaning house
c. a rehab center for frustrated writers
d. writing them down

7. Blast drafting probably means
a. telling your boss off in a memo
b. setting the world on fire with your ideas
c. signing up with the Selective Service as a land mine detector
d. writing whatever comes into your head to develop an idea

8. After reading your first draft, say to yourself, This isnt as good as it
could be, but it can improve if I___
a. translate it into hieroglyphics
b. pay someone else to do it
c. have a few drafts myself: it will look better after each one
d. start to revise it

9. Raising children is like polishing bricks, but writing is like polishing
a. your car
b. your neighborís car, which is nicer than yours
c. the silverware
d. a nugget of gold: the idea

10. Writing your first draft, don’t worry that it’s skimpy. You can always
go back and make it____
a. fatter
b. juicier
c. plaid
d. better

11. If you’re not inspired to write something, ____
a. take a nap
b. plagiarize
c. steal something your colleague already wrote and put your name on it
d. go after an idea with ACTION: blast drafting; outlining;
brainstorming with others; sharing ideas; collaborating

13. One way to mend “sagging middles” is
a. a Nordic Track ski machine
b. a girdle
c. two girdles
d. using an outline to check for gaps, redundancy, flow of ideas