Half my family are into archery. My daughter even shot for GB in Europe in her teens. My son, who (like me) takes the world very slowly and seriously, got target panic when he was around 12 and gave up. Target panic is very much a fear of doing it and getting it wrong. It tends to take one of two forms, letting fly wildly at the first glimpse of gold through the sight, or the perfectionism of focusing and holding so long that the arms tire and shake creeps in and they cannot let fly at all (my son's problem). Any time I'm fussing about writing my husband reminds me I have target panic and just to enjoy the writing. (How anyone can enjoy target archery is quite beyond me. Zzzzzzz.)
Half my family are into archery. My daughter even shot for GB in Europe in her teens. My son, who (like me) takes the world very slowly and seriously, got target panic when he was around 12 and gave up. Target panic is very much a fear of doing it and getting it wrong. It tends to take one of two forms, letting fly wildly at the first glimpse of gold through the sight, or the perfectionism of focusing and holding so long that the arms tire and shake creeps in and they cannot let fly at all (my son's problem). Any time I'm fussing about writing my husband reminds me I have target panic and just to enjoy the writing. (How anyone can enjoy target archery is quite beyond me. Zzzzzzz.)
That's a really good analogy - thanks Myfanwy.
It can be too easy to forget that panic isn't really helping.
I like the "weight of pots" example, and the Ray Bradbury advice to write a story a week, because the only way through is to actually DO the work.