Callum and the Cupids and Archery
If you follow me on Twitter you may have seen a few quotes from my Camp NaNoWriMo story Callum and the Cupids. The story follows the adventures of recent university graduate Callum in his new job as a cupid. Throughout the story archery plays a big role for the cupids. Well I most definitely did not have the first clue about archery and I wanted to get it right so a lot of my research was supported by my lovely friend Feowyn (who is an epic archer) but then my local archery club advertised a beginners course and I decided that really it was my duty as an author to have a go myself.
Let me paint the scene for you. I'm in the middle of England. The sun is desperately trying to shine from behind some suspicious-looking clouds but it manages to hold out for the whole afternoon. The shoot is in the middle of a field... somewhere. It looks easy enough to find on the website but that doesn't translate well when I'm stood in the middle of some poor farmers crops thinking 'this doesn't seem right'.... After a frantic phone call and some luck I find the place. Ah well, I'm only 5 minutes late.
I have the misfortune of being right handed with a left-dominant eye; this means I get the joy of shooting as a leftie. Bring it on.
I'm handed a bow. I had never realised quite how large recurve bows are, standing up it was almost as tall as me, easily reaching my eyes (although I am only 5'1"). This was quite intimidating. Then there are a lot of things to remember; hand positions and bent elbows and feet and chins and..!
Well anyway, off we go to shoot. I awkwardly manage to place the shaft on the rest and fit the arrow to the string (ambidextrous I am not) and raise the bow when the arrow promptly flies sideways with the wind. Ah, I don't think it's meant to do that. We replace the rest on my bow and off I go to try again, shooting the target and the field (I'm not discriminatory) hurray!
The only problem was that shooting was painful. Like really painful. This was not included in any of my research...
I managed to:
A) Miss the bracer and hit my arm with the string (twice)
B) Hit my shoulder (I don't even know how I managed that?)
C) Get the string between the bracer and my arm (also how?)
Edit: check out this beauty of a bruise that appeared overnight!
Anyway despite all the whinging it was quite fun and I enjoyed myself really. I definitely improved after the end of the three hours. Oh yes and I have two more weeks of this if anyone wants an update.
Check out my final lot (mine are the ones with pink fletching), they're all on the target and one even sneaked into the yellow! ;D
Let me paint the scene for you. I'm in the middle of England. The sun is desperately trying to shine from behind some suspicious-looking clouds but it manages to hold out for the whole afternoon. The shoot is in the middle of a field... somewhere. It looks easy enough to find on the website but that doesn't translate well when I'm stood in the middle of some poor farmers crops thinking 'this doesn't seem right'.... After a frantic phone call and some luck I find the place. Ah well, I'm only 5 minutes late.
I have the misfortune of being right handed with a left-dominant eye; this means I get the joy of shooting as a leftie. Bring it on.
I'm handed a bow. I had never realised quite how large recurve bows are, standing up it was almost as tall as me, easily reaching my eyes (although I am only 5'1"). This was quite intimidating. Then there are a lot of things to remember; hand positions and bent elbows and feet and chins and..!
Well anyway, off we go to shoot. I awkwardly manage to place the shaft on the rest and fit the arrow to the string (ambidextrous I am not) and raise the bow when the arrow promptly flies sideways with the wind. Ah, I don't think it's meant to do that. We replace the rest on my bow and off I go to try again, shooting the target and the field (I'm not discriminatory) hurray!
The only problem was that shooting was painful. Like really painful. This was not included in any of my research...
I managed to:
A) Miss the bracer and hit my arm with the string (twice)
B) Hit my shoulder (I don't even know how I managed that?)
C) Get the string between the bracer and my arm (also how?)
Edit: check out this beauty of a bruise that appeared overnight!
Anyway despite all the whinging it was quite fun and I enjoyed myself really. I definitely improved after the end of the three hours. Oh yes and I have two more weeks of this if anyone wants an update.
Check out my final lot (mine are the ones with pink fletching), they're all on the target and one even sneaked into the yellow! ;D
No comments have been added yet.
