Howling Wolf Set in old Belarus Creative Writing Test--Take the Mystery Writer's Volkovysk Test of Creativity Enhancement
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Belarus in the 19th century town of Volkvysk? Take the Howling Wolf
test.
Take the free Mystery Writer's Volkovysk Assessment of Creativity
Enhancement and Story Writing on the blog at:
http://creativityquestionnaires.blogspot.com/. This assessment helps
to enhance your creativity thinking in case you want to write short
stories or novels and plays. Here's the test.
There are 35 questions—seven questions for each of the five pairs.
There are 10 choices.
Keep the number of questions you design for each category equal.
Author is a senior citizen who has taught creative writing for many
years at the university level before retirement and has written 80
novels, plays, and how-to books. The test is free, and the author's
book may be browsed free at the publisher's Web site. Here's one part
of the blog.
***
Creativity Questionnaires--Writing Creativity Behavioral Preferences
This test also appears in the author's paperback book titled 30+ Brain-
Exercising Creative Coach Businesses to Open: How to Use Writing,
Music, Drama & Art Therapy Techniques for Healing, Anne Hart, M.A.
ASJA Press, Jan. 2007. (Reprinted with permission.)
CREATIVE WRITING EMPLOYMENT PERSONALITY PREFERENCE ASSESSMENT
If you’re an expressive arts therapist—creative writing,
bibliotherapy, dance, drama, art, music, movement…you are “tech
support” specializing in behavior, critical thinking, emotional
response, actions, and reactions in relation to various personality
preferences, attitudes, traits, and aptitudes. If you’re a writing
coach or a coach-consultant in any of the arts, your clients call you
when they have problems with their product or manuscript. You can work
face-to-face or online or through interactive multimedia
correspondence.
You spend your day talking to professionals that ask you to solve
problems or resolve conflicts in a tangible object—a script, music
score, or design. As a therapist, your “tech support” role emphasizes
behavior. Sometimes the behavior and the product are one.
If you talk to people having a bad day, will you have a bad day, too?
Here’s one sample of my creative writing preference and aptitude
classifier assessments to take yourself and to offer to your clients.
Design your own to fit your particular requirements as a coach,
consultant, or therapist.
Take the “Howling Wolf’s Scribe” Creative Writing Preference
Classifier
©2007 by Anne Hart
Are you best-suited to be a digital interactive or ethnographic story
writer, a nonfiction writer, or a mystery writer using historic
themes? Do you think like a fiction writer? Take the writing style
preference classifier and find out how you approach your favorite
writing style using Zabeyko’s facts and acts.
Which genre is for you--interactive, traditional, creative nonfiction,
fiction, decisive or investigative? Would you rather write for readers
that need to interact with their own story endings or plot branches?
Which style best fits you? What’s your writing profile?
Take this ancient echoes writing genre interest classifier and see the
various ways in which way you can be more creative. Do you prefer to
write investigative, logical nonfiction or imaginative fiction—or a
mixture of both? There are 35 questions—seven questions for each of
the five pairs. There are 10 choices.
The Choices:
Grounded Verve
Rational Enthusiastic
Decisive Investigative
Loner Outgoing
Traditional Change-Driven
Writer's Creativity Style Preference Classifier
Use the clues to inspire your own creativity in writing historic or
mystery fiction. You are a mystery writer working on an interactive
audio book of stories with clues for the Web about a scribe and music
composer prodigy, Zabeyko, who lives and works in Wolkowysk (Howling
Wolf), White Russia (now Belarus) near Bialystok of 1812, in the
ancient Grodno province the time Napoleon visited. Zabeyko’s father,
Kutkowski, has unending adventures trying to track down the person who
gifted the multi-lingual musical prodigy child, Zabeyko, with a golden
scholarship to study musical performance far away in Venice.
Zabeyko, son of a Tatar prince, is the young, adopted son of the
famous Baltic wolf tamer, Polotskay Kutkowski. Surrounding the area is
a forest known historically for its howling wolves. In Kutkowski’s
gentle hands, the wolves sing opera as they stand on the rooftops of
light-reflecting gingerbread-type houses in the midst of snowy winters
and, tall, fresh-scented pine trees.
It’s December, and the holidays are being celebrated among Wolkowysk’s
diverse and expanding population. The nation has just fallen back
again under Russian rule.
When music prodigy, Zabeyko mysteriously disappears from his music
tutor, Azarello, in Vienna when he was supposed to be studying music
with that tutor in Venice, you as the mystery writer and scribe are in
a race against time to save Zabeyko’s teenaged fiancée, Jadwiga, from
being forced into an unwilling marriage with Zabeyko’s first childhood
music tutor and male nanny, Jagello of the Zamkover forest. Jagello
told Zabyeko’s father that his son, probably murdered by river
bandits, is buried in Vienna on lands owned by the music tutor from
Venice who has fled to family in Vienna.
You are hired as the scribe and investigator, much like an early
investigative journalist who must follow clues and solve the mystery
for his step father, Polotskay Kutkowski. But there is another famous
wolf tamer in town. Your ‘avatar’name is Efrosinia.
It is Jagello, who owns a competing traveling circus. Both Kutkowski
and Jagello are wealthy land owners who compete in their circus acts,
and both own equally prosperous traveling circuses.
Jagello is determined to become the greatest wolf tamer of them all in
his traveling circus by marrying the wealthy Jadwiga. How will you
write this interactive story, according to your writing style
preferences?
Clues
The leading character is Napoleon’s greatest enemy of the howling wolf
forest, a wise, older woman, Efrosinia, the scribe and healer who
knows exactly which plants will heal and nurse the villagers back to
health. Efrosinia, the scribe and healer is rightly named after
Efrosinia Polatskaya, a patron saint (who took a new name, Pradslava)
of the land now called Belarus. You are now Efrosinia.
As a leading character, Efrosinia is a woman of 1812 fortunate enough
to have inherited wealth from an ancestral line of architects. She
grew up as a friend to the Kutkowski extended family. This character,
Efrosinia, is your alter ego and takes on your own personality as she
solves problems or crimes using her healing touch.
1. To write your story, would you prefer to
a. go to the Belarus archives in order to have translated two letters
sent by Zabeyko’s teenage fiancée, Jadwiga to the 1812 ruler of
Wolkowysk asking to send her a new fiancé (down-to-earth) or
b. dig deeper and find out the connections between the two documents,
reading fear between the lines and noting the reluctance Zabeyko’s
fiancée expresses in being forced to marry her servant, the tutor,
Jagello? (verve)
a. □
b. □
2. Would you be more interested in researching history and writing
about
a. the closeness or distance of the relationships that surfaced
between the Belarus farmers, Baltic Lithuanians, Russians, and the
Poles (enthusiastic) or
b. analyze the business deals and diplomatic events between these
equal powers to see who was winning the race to becoming the
superpower of the century? (rational)
a. □
b. □
3. Are you more interested in the fact that
a. Zabeyko’s teenage fiancée, Jadwiga wrote all her letters in
Swedish, not in the Belarus (White Russian) dialect (down-to-earth)
or
b. Zabeyko’s father, Polotskay Kutkowski, was so hated after his death
because he worshipped the spirits inhabiting pine trees, that his face
was scratched off all his monuments and wall friezes in his traveling
circus? (verve)
a. □
b. □
4. Would you rather write about
a. Zabeyko being adopted, sent as a gift from a Tatar trader during
his step father's festival celebrating the birth of his 12th son
(enthusiastic) or
b. the mystery of why Zabeyko turned up “buried in Budapest” (never
reaching Venice) near his music teacher’s land with both the Tatar
horse amulet, a tamga, on his neck and a cobra twisted into music
notes on his headstone? (rational)?
a. □
b. □
5. You are Jadwiga. Would you rather
a. exercise your right as a fiancée to claim Zabeyko's unmarried Tatar
brother, Prince Atil (enthusiastic) or
b. marry Zabeyko's male nanny, Jagello because it's only right and
fair to restore a Tatar prince in hiding from his throne even while he
dwells in Wolkowysk, as he works with equally brilliant Jadwiga?
(rational)
a. □
b. □
6. Zabeyko's fiancée wrote to her father-in-law to send her another of
his sons for marriage to her. As a writer of her life story, would you
rather
a. create a laundry list of princes either Tatar, Russian, Polish,
Lithuanian, or of Wolkowysk, that she must interview and screen in a
dating game (down-to-earth) or
b. create a story where she rides 1,000 miles across the forests and
steppes to run away from Zabeyko’s tutor, Jagello after he forces her
to marry him. Finding herself childless, she then studies design
disguised as a 14-year old boy. But growing wiser and older, she
travels in disguise along the Silk Road to study architecture where
she meets her true soul mate and business partner. (verve)
a. □
b. □
7. Are you more interested in ending your story with
a. Jagello marrying Zabeyko's fiancée, Jadwiga, then quickly getting
rid of Jadwiga as Jagello marries Zabeyko’s adoptive grand mother,
Pradislava, for her land and property as his second wife, so that you
have closure and an ending for your story (decisive) or
b. would you rather let your story remain open for serialization,
since Zabeyko's fiancée is never heard from again and disappears just
like Zabeyko did after Jagello marries her and then marries his
adoptive grandmother, Pradislava. The fate of Zabeyko’s fiancée after
marrying Zabeyko’s tutor, Jagello is not recorded in history.
(investigative)
a. □
b. □
8. If you were a Tatar prince living in a foreign land, would you
prefer to
a. decide immediately to obey the diverse European nobles of Wolkowysk
and leave Tataristan to marry Jadwiga of the howling wolf forests
because duty required it, knowing you'll probably be killed when you
arrive by the same person who killed Zabeyko, (decisive) or
b. stall for time as long as possible, waiting for validated
information to arrive regarding the diplomatic climate between Tatars
and Russians? (investigative).
a. □
b. □
9. You are Zabeyko, a Tatar prince adopted in infancy by a wealthy
Belarus owner of many traveling circus acts. You have been given as a
gift from the Tatar king to the Baltic Tribes because his wife had six
daughters and no sons. If you were Zabeyko, would you
a. speak in the Tatar tongue in front of your Slavic tutor, thereby
possibly inflaming the nationalism in him (investigative) or
b. plan and organize methodically to have a whole line of people close
to you from your own Tataristan rather than from the Slavic lands in
which you were raised?
(decisive)
a. □
b. □
10. Would you rather write about
a. terms of the treaty between Tatars and the Slavs based on the facts
provided by records (down-to-earth) or
b. the theories set in motion when Jagello marries Jadwiga and soon
after, she disappears, just like her financee, Zabeyko, and Jabello
then marries Zabeyko’s mother? (verve)
a. □
b. □
11. Do you like writing about
a. enigmas or puzzles set in motion by symbols on intimate funerary
equipment in a mystery novel (rational) or
b. why no other Tatar royalty emblem after Zabeyko’s life span ever
again appeared on a medallion with a horse tamga inscribed in
scrimshaw ivory with a vulture? (enthusiastic)
a. □
b. □
12. A tag line shows the mood/emotion in the voice--how a character
speaks or acts. Are you more interested in
a. compiling, counting, and indexing citations or quotes from how-to
books for writers (down-to-earth) or
b. compiling tag lines that explain in fiction dialogue the specific
behaviors or gestures such as, “Yes, he replied timorously.”? (verve)
a. □
b. □
13. Would you rather write
a. dialog (enthusiastic) or
b. description? (rational)
a. □
b. □
14. To publicize your writing, would you rather
a. give spectacular presentations or shows without preparation or
prior notice (investigative) or
b. have to prepare a long time in advance to speak or perform?
(decisive)
a. □
b. □
15. If you were Jadwiga, would you prefer to
a. receive warnings well in advance and without surprises that Jagello
is planning to get rid of you and marry your would-be mother-in-law
(adoptive grandmother of Zabeyko) so you could conveniently disappear
(decisive) or
b. adapt to last-moment changes by never getting down to your last man
or your last coin? (investigative)
a. □
b. □
16. As a scribe, artist, and poet in Wolkowysk when Napoleon visited,
would you
a. feel constrained by Zabeyko's time schedules and deadlines
(investigative) or
b. set realistic timetables and juggle priorities? (decisive)
a. □
b. □
17. As Zabeyko's widow, do you feel bound to
a. go with social custom, do the activities itemized on the social
calendar, and
marry your dead husband's unmarried brother because it's organized
according to a plan (decisive) or
b. go with the flow of the relationship, deal with issues as they
arise, make no commitments or assumptions about what's the right thing
to do because time changes plans? (investigative)
a. □
b. □
18. You're the Tatar prince reading Jadwiga’s,
desperate letter. Is your reply to Jadwiga more likely to be
a. one brief, concise, and to the point letter (rational) or
b. one sociable, friendly, empathetic and time-consuming letter?
(enthusiastic)
a. □
b. □
19. You're the Tatar prince and music prodigy, Zabeyko, adopted and re-
named by Belarus step-parents. You’re contemplating who wants more to
replace you with a local noble. You make a list of
a. the pros and cons of each person close to you (rational) or
b. varied comments from friends and relatives on what they say behind
your back regarding how your influence them and what they want from
you. (enthusiastic)
a. □
b. □
20. You're the scribe trying to solve Zabeyko's murder in Vienna when
he was supposed to be studying music in Venice. Would you rather
investigate
a. the tried and true facts about Jagello (down-to-earth) or
b. want to see what's in the overall picture before you fill in the
clues? (verve)
a. □
b. □
21. You’re a scribe painting Zabeyko's tomb shortly after his demise
and you
a. seldom make errors of detail when looking for clues such as taking
notice of Jagello’s wedding present to the young, healthy Jadwiga--her
freshly inscribed coffin. (down-to-earth) or
b. prefer more innovative work like writing secret love poems to
Jadwiga disguised as prayers and watching for Zabeyko's ghost to
escape through the eight-inch square hole you cut in his headstone.
(verve)
a. □
b. □
22. As a scribe in 1812 Wolkowysk, you become
a. tired when you work alone all day in a dimly torchlit room
(outgoing) or
b. tired when Zabeyko interrupts your concentration on your work to
demand that you greet and entertain his guests all evening at
banquets. (loner).
a. □
b. □
23. When Jadwiga asks you as a scribe to write love poems for her that
she can send to Zabeyko, you
a. create the ideas for your poems by long discussions with her
(outgoing) or
b. prefer to be alone when you reach deep down inside your spirit to
listen to what your soul entities tell you as the only resource for
writing metaphors. (loner)
a. □
b. □
24. You travel to Venice and Vienna investigating the death of Zabeyko
and prefer to
a. question many different foreigners and locals at boisterous
celebrations in different languages (outgoing) or
b. disregard outside events and look inside the family history/
genealogy inscriptions for the culprit. (loner)
a. □
b. □
25. Zabeyko, at age nine asks you to develop ideas for him about how
to act when writing music. You prefer to develop ideas through
a. reflection, meditation, and prayer (loner) or
b. discussions and interviews among Zabeyko’s playmates on what makes
Zabeyko laugh. (outgoing)
a. □
b. □
26. As a scribe you are
a. rarely cautious about the family position of those with whom you
socialize as long as they are kind, righteous people who do good deeds
(outgoing) or
b. seeking one person with power to raise you from scribe to noble, if
only the richest noble in Wolkowysk would ask your advice. (loner)
a. □
b. □
27. You are a designer and builder of palaces. A rich noble asks you
to carve a name for yourself on his palace door that's a special
representation of its builder. Would you
a. inscribe the word that means ‘remote’ (loner) or
b. choose a special name for yourself that means, “He who shares time
easily with many foreigners?” (outgoing)
a. □
b. □
28. As an early 19th century scribe, do you work better when you
a. spend your day off daydreaming where no one can see you (loner) or
b. spend your free time training teams of apprentice scribes?
(outgoing)
a. □
b. □
29. If you discovered a new land, would you build your cities upon
a. your wise elders’ principles as they always have worked well before
(traditional) or
b. unfamiliar cargo that traders brought from afar? (change-driven)
a.□
b.□
30. Do you depict your ruler’s victories on a stone column exactly as
a. surviving witnesses from both sides recounted the events (change-
driven) or
b. only the ruler wants people to see? (traditional)
a.□
b.□
31. If you’re self-motivated, would you avoid learning from your
overseer because
a. your overseer doesn’t keep up with the times (change-driven) or
b. your overseer doesn’t let you follow in your father’s footsteps?
(traditional)
a.□
b.□
32. Would you prefer to
a. train scribes because your father taught you how to do it well
(traditional) or
b. move quickly from one project to another forever? (change-driven)
a.□
b.□
33. Do you feel like an outsider when
a. you think more about the future than about current chores (change-
driven) or
b. invaders replace your forefathers’ familiar foods with unfamiliar
cuisine? (traditional)
a.□
b.□
34. Do you quickly
a. solve problems for those inside when you’re coming from outside
(change-driven) or
b. refuse to spend your treasures to develop new ideas that might
fail? (traditional)
a.□
b.□
35. Would you rather listen to and learn from philosophers that
a. predict a future in which old habits are replaced with new ones
(change-driven) or
b. are only interested in experiencing one day at a time?
(traditional)
a.□
b.□
Self-Scoring the Test
Add up the number of answers for each of the following ten writing
style traits for the 36 questions. There are seven questions for each
group. The ten categories are made up of five opposite pairs.
Down-to-earth Verve
Rational Enthusiastic
Decisive Investigative
Loner Outgoing
Traditional Change-Driven
Then put the numbers for each answer next to the categories. See the
same self-scored test and results below.
1. Total Down-to-earth 6. Total Verve
2. Total Rational 7. Total Enthusiastic
3. Total Decisive 8. Total Investigative
4. Total Loner 9. Total Outgoing
5. Total Traditional 10. Total Change-Driven
To get your score, you’re only adding up the number of answers for
each of the 10 categories (five pairs) above. See the sample self-
scored test below. Note that there are seven questions for each of the
five pairs (or 10 designations). There are 35 questions. Seven
questions times five categories equal 35 questions. Keep the number of
questions you design for each category equal.
See the entire assessment with the scored sample test at the blog at:
http://creativityquestionnaires.blogspot.com/.