11 May 2012 (Friday) - More Painting

I spent an hour job hunting this morning. But only an hour. There's no denying I'm getting quite disillusioned with the whole thing. How does one gain the required experience for the job when a prerequisite is that you have already got that experience?

I got the paints out and did another painting of taking Fudge for a walk. In retrospect I think I should have put more greenery and branches around the edge of the painting to make it look more like the view from inside the woods. I think I'm better with alpine scenes. But it's not bad as paintings go, I suppose. I enjoyed the hour I wasted doing it, and that's the main thing. If people like my paintings, then I am pleased. But I like painting for its own sake. It's something I can do. Sort of.

And (despite the drought order) with the rain having stopped for the first time in over a month I got the lawn mower out and gave the lawn a haircut. As I started, so next door's dog was half way over the fence. The bloke from next door grabbed the dog and apologised. And as I mowed I could hear the sound of the dog screaming, trying to get free, trying to have a go at me in my own garden. Don't get me wrong - the people next door are decent people; but it's now got that I can't set foot in my own garden without their dogs going mad. And me feeling that I'm intruding by being in my own garden.

I did a survey about biscuits, and then I wrote another three thousand words of novel. I've come up with another plot twist which I have fitted into the ongoing story. I hope it works. I think it does, but I would, wouldn't I? I also had a read through. I did this in two sittings as the thing is now forty pages long. And then I had the first serious editing session which took over two hours to do.

Most of the plot is there. It just needs two more major scenes, several minor scenes and a bit of padding out in places. I'm not quite sure how much padding I should do though. How long should a novel be?

And after a decent bit of fish n chips (diet, pah!) we watched "Eragon". A film which has never really appealed to me, but was actually not too shabby (to coin a phrase)...