43 pages • 1 hour read
Annie DillardThe Writing Life
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1989A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
Dillard discusses the necessity of an unappealing, isolated workspace so the imagination can work at full capacity. From her anecdotes, what are the positive and negative aspects of working in isolation? How can a writer navigate the isolation of work without becoming distanced from reality? Use examples from the text to support your answer.
Dillard implores aspiring writers to follow a work wherever it leaves and to never leave an idea for a later project. In what ways does the structure or style of this book mimic her own advice? Use examples from the text to support your answer.
How would you categorize the genre of this work? Can The Writing Life fit cleanly into one genre? Support your answer with reference to the text.
Along with other authors, Dillard frequently quotes Thoreau’s books and journals, and critics have compared her style to his. How does Dillard compare herself to Thoreau in this book? Are their subjects, styles, or experiences similar in any way? In what significant ways do they differ? Use examples from the text to support your answer.
Though she does not worry about including exact dates, Dillard is careful to describe the various locations where her stories take place. Why is location so important to Dillard? How do the places where she writes influence her subject matter and style? Use examples from the text to support your answer.
Dillard quotes Jack London, who argues that every writer needs “a technique, experience, and a philosophical position” (34). How would you encapsulate Dillard’s writing philosophy? Does she have rigid rules about writing or is she more flexible? Use examples from the text to support your answer.
The book’s title page includes an epigraph from Emerson: “No one suspects the days to be gods.” How does this quotation connect to Dillard’s discussions throughout the book? What does this quotation say about what “the writing life” is?
Dave Rahm, the aviator, receives an entire chapter dedicated to his legacy, even though Dillard met him only on a few occasions over the course of a few months. Why does Dillard give his story so much space in a book about writing? What does his story say about the writing life? Use examples from the text to support your answer.
If you are familiar with Dillard’s other writings from the period she describes in this book, does knowing about her struggles to write change your opinion of these writings or illuminate anything about their subject matter? Or, like Dillard argues, should the process of writing not be acknowledged in the discussion of the finished project? Support your answer with reference to the text.
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