When Learning the Craft of Writing isn't even an option...

gotchan said:

The last option isn't "I have easy access to advice on writing craft and still incorporate trial and error in my learning process." It's "I don't have easy access to advice on writing craft therefore I learn by trial and error."

If it was the former, I would have chosen all four options. I use a lot of trial and error, but I also have easy access to advice on writing craft. Therefore, because the fourth option is I do not have easy access to advice, I cannot truthfully select it despite a lot of error on my part.

Click to expand...

Oops, my bad... Yup, it means that less than one third of us have easy access to knowledge and therefore use (predominantly) trial and error... Will go edit that post now...

And my very unscientific poll is now closed! Thank you to everyone who participated. The results were probably expected by many, but I'm still surprised at the percentage of us who clicked on option 4 (27%); the comments on this thread indicate though that some of us might have clicked on this option purely because of the reference to learning through trial and error (not coupled with lack of access to knowledge), so the results are probably inflated for this reason.

That forums like AW are the most empowering (a whopping 89%) is not so surprising; there was bound to be a slant in favour of this option (seeing as we're all on AW to begin with).

For reasons above, to be safe, I'd consider options 1 and 4 to be the two least 'reliable' options to base any opinion on...

Methinks the two middle options are the most telling. Almost 80% of us easily access books/other literature on writing craft, and more than half of us (56%) have access to mentors in some shape or form (including blogs).

On the whole... though I realise how heavily weighted this poll is in favour of those who have some kind of internet connection to begin with (and thus a higher likelihood of access to knowledge), it has been fun to see the percentages add up.

Thanks again to those who participated, and for those who were following the discussion about writing plays with limited knowledge, this forum thread on Writing a play with no experience in theatre (which I happened to stumble upon just now - becoming a believer in 'synchronicity' now) might be of interest as well...

Cheers