by Christine Whitmarsh

Created on: August 20, 2009   Last Updated: August 22, 2009

Hitting the Target

A few months ago, I went shooting for the first time in my life at a target range. Much to my then boyfriend (now husband) Mike's (former marine expert marksman instructor) dismay, I spent most of our first time out completely missing the target. Being a type A perfectionist, this was completely frustrating. I have a somewhat obsessive need to be perfect at new skills. Mike was an excellent and (mostly) patient instructor, teaching me all the proper techniques, but to no avail. I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong so therefore I couldn't fix it. If I'm doing something wrong I want, no I NEED to know the fix. It's this whole let's handle the problem thing that has driven me since childhood.

At one point during the intermissions (when you go out and service your targets) a man whose target was down range from ours came over holding his target up and grinning.

I'm thinking that these are your bullet holes, he said, pointing to my little 22 caliber holes next to his much larger caliber ones.

You'd think this would have been embarrassing, but I was absolutely jubilant. I was shooting high! Before this, I was thinking that my bullets were disappearing into some kind of invisible time warp or black hole. Where the heck were they going? Now, thanks to this very amused and helpful stranger, I knew where the bullets were going and what I needed to do to hit the target. I won't go into all the details of sight picture, sight alignment and such, but Mike and I finally had the info we needed to get me back on target again. He even drew a nice little picture of what I was doing wrong that helped immensely. Ever since then, I've been hitting the target, and occasionally the bullseye (hooray!).

Now if only my career as a writer were as clear cut. When you do something creative for a living, finding the target isn't as easy. The work you do is subjective and abstract and therefore so is the feedback, often in automated feedback form. The chances are slim that a solution to a creative problem will be as simple as a kindly amused stranger telling me that I'm aiming too high.

As an artist, how do you know if you're hitting the target? The worst books in the world can get rave reviews and the best can go largely unnoticed under the radar for years (Catch-22 comes to mind). The worst movies can rule the box office and the best end up direct to DVD in very few living rooms. Nobody gave a damn about guys like Mozart or Van Gogh until they were long gone. Art is the opposite of shooting.

Ironically, it's as an artist that I most enjoy the shooting range. I enjoy the objectivity of the skill you either hit or miss and have the hole in the target to prove it. Ironically, the objective skill of shooting has given me a new found confidence in my abilities as an artist. I'm more confident about completing projects and being sure that I've done my best work and in general. In other words, I think I've figured out how to hit the target. I know that I won't hit the bulls eye every time, but if I keep practicing I just might have a shot at it.

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