Using a shepherd’s sling with 90% success in aiming in the right direction
When you use a shepherd’s sling, it’s important to use stones of a consistent size and shape. In the Bible, David used smooth sling-stones from the brook to defeat Goliath, but for practising the basic arc of the swing and release, anything between roundish and cube-ish will do. It’s a good idea to keep the weight of them even.
After half an hour, I was throwing at least 90% of my stones in the direction I was aiming for. Only a few were flipping out of the pocket and flying off behind me. I was getting into a rhythm.
I chose a very safe location, a rock platform in the bush above Maitland Bay with no humans or dogs in sight, apart from my wife who took the photo. It’s safe enough if you swing the sling in a vertical circle, rather than using a horizontal circle or a figure-of-eight motion as some slingers do. With a vertical swing you can predict that the stone will fly forwards, backwards or drop straight down–all in a fairly straight line. It doesn’t fly off to the side.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3xCMY9fn0o
The sling-stone as a metaphor for writing a scene
It’s all a bit like writing a scene in a novel: each scene in a chapter should be a small well-chosen stone with an emotional weight equal to the other scenes. This is especially important in my novel, Twin Stars, because my hero, Bhòid, becomes an expert slinger after he breaks his arm and finds that he is less able to throw a spear.
https://charlotteclutterbuck.com/gannet-quartet/
Of course, as with the swing, some of the stones do fly off behind me, pulling me back into muddles rather than flinging the story forward.