Dear Authors

[ladysprite]

Please take at least a little time and energy to research the details of what you're writing about, lest you wind up looking like an idiot in the eyes of your readers. Especially if you're creating an intricately detailed world, and then wind up including completely irrelevant details that are unnecessary for plot, draw attention to themselves by being forced in out of the blue, and irk your readers to the point that they wind up getting drawn again and again into ever-worsening frustration and distraction over, say, the fact that the average sheep does NOT, in fact, weigh a quarter-ton.

I'm looking at you, Jim Butcher.

In other news, I have been informed that a "blue-faced leicester" sounds less like a kind of sheep and more like Cockney slang for a criminal act. I shudder to think of what said act might be, though.....

Comments

[danceboy.livejournal.com]

I don't know about the rest of the books, but that's why I wore a bracer when I shot competitively. It doesn't happen to everyone with every bow, but a significant portion of archers, using the bows they use, have it. I'd be willing to guess a fair majority, but I have no numbers, only chatting with other archers. It may be that my archery subculture (which tended to use recurves around 30-40#) had it worse than most, I dunno.

It wasn't a whonking smack from the string; harder than being tapped, but not as hard as being slapped even with a single finger. But if you're doing things right, it's in the same EXACT place every time. After a hundred arrows or so it hurts just enough to positively reinforce variance in my shooting, and eliminating variance is precisely why I was practicing.

Also, the bracer doesn't have to be armor or anything, one guy I know used a tennis sweatband.

[keshwyn]

It doesn't happen to everyone with every bow, but a significant portion of archers, using the bows they use, have it.

Interesting. I shoot a 33# recurve with no compensation and no sight, and I don't hit myself with my string. I wear a bracer in cold weather to keep from fouling my shots on my long sleeve shirts, but my teacher and most other archers I've shot with tell me that if you're whacking yourself with the string, you've got your elbow hyperextended and your form's off.

I wonder if it has something to do with the grip of any given bow.

But if you're doing things right, it's in the same EXACT place every time.

Because if you're doing things right, your form is exactly the same every time - right. I just protest that one shouldn't be whacking oneself in the arm in the first place.

Especially after I ran the bowstring down my arm when I did hyperextend my elbow at one point. Boy HOWDY did that hurt.

[danceboy.livejournal.com]

I'd agree that one shouldn't be whacking oneself in the arm. Hyperextension bad. It hurts, messes up your arm support, and shoves the string out of line.

It's a tap about 3 inches from the wrist, where the arm has to pass through the plane of the bow in order to support it. It's after the arrow has already left the bow, and the string is going past vertical. It's just a tap to get your attention.

Hmm, there were a bunch of Venturas, Widows, and Bushmasters floating around my crowd. Based on your hat it looks like you're doing something Mongolian, what were you shooting?

I'm guessing that it has to do with how the handle of the bow is shaped (so where it puts your arm), and what the fistmele is.

[keshwyn]

Interesting. Good to know that about Black Widows - it's not something I've experienced with most of my bows. I'm shooting a Bear Tamerlane because I can't yet afford a replica Mongolian horsebow. (It's going to be my present to myself when I reach Grand Master Bowman, but I'm not there yet, and I'm still saving for it.) My fistmele is about three inches up my forearm from my wrist, but it doesn't tap there when I shoot - possibly to do with the grip of the bow, which has suited me the best of any bow I've ever shot. If my Tamerlane ever dies, I'm going to be very, very sad.

I'd been considering getting a Black Widow. Now I will have to make sure to try one out before I buy, just to make sure the grip suits me. Thanks for the heads up!