I have been listing a lot of vintage sterling charms in my etsy store this week and most of them I can part with… except for this little beauty from Beau Sterling.
The charm is a lovely little detailed desk and hidden underneath is a typewriter that flips up to sit on top of the desk (pictures follow below).
I keep wanting to take it out of my store inventory and put it on my charm bracelet. I think it would look lovely there nestled between my map of Wisconsin charm and the “Worlds Greatest Wife” trophy charm my husband gave me.
Beau Sterling Desk Charm with Hidden Typewriter
The charm reminds me of the old typewriter and desk that my Dad used to type out forms at his job site and later in the evening to write letters to his brother in Chicago. It also reminds me of taking typing class in high school and pecking away on the huge electric beast in rhythm to timed typing tests and drills such as this home key drill below.
aaa ;;; sss lll ddd kkk fff jjj
aa ss dd ff aa ss dd ff
ad ad as as ask ask ad ad as as ask ask
Bottom of the charm. I have seen several movable desk charms before, but the Beau Sterling one is the best and most detailed.
Most of all the charm reminds me that I write and therefore I must be a writer. The problem is though- lately I don’t feel like much of a writer… Oh- it is not for a lack of writing- I do write almost everyday, but lately I feel like more of a failure then anything. It’s not that I haven’t been published- that doesn’t seem to bother me at all. It’s just that I have been struggling with editing a project for over a year now and seem to be obsessing with this book.
The typewriter flipped up and ready to take down the writer's words.
As of today- I am in a terrible stalemate because I won’t stop working on it, editing it, or hacking it apart to work on anything else. I get a few chapters into the 200 or so page monster, only to find myself back at the beginning editing again, rather then tying up the end in order to work on (heaven forbid) a sequel…
Up until a few years ago, I could work on several things at once. I wrote short stories, a few novellas, and even some poetry (which I am not very good at) – dropping one thing to work on another and vice versa. If an idea came along that I didn’t currently have time for, I would at the very least right a few notes down in a journal to revisit at a later date.
Even the back panel is detailed.
Dutifully I even sent a few of my favorite finished products out to publishing venues because that’s what writers do and yes- I received back a handful of rejection letters. This didn’t bother me. For one the flow was still there, the creativity had not yet died or even slowed down to a painful trickle. Ideas were still coming, that was until I started really working on this book.
So here I am kind of at some sort of crossroads wondering if I should keep plugging away and expect that one day I will see the light at the end of the tunnel and a finished book. Or should I just call it a day and move on to other things… what do you think?
Have you ever been stuck on one project forever, be it writing or something else? How did you handle it? Leave me a comment I would love to hear from you.
In the meantime the charm is still in my store for some worthy writer.
Very nice charm. Maybe the problem is that you shouldn’t be editing it and you should have someone else do that part for you. I don’t know. That’s what I thought an editor was for. But I’m not a writer, so I’m just guessing. 0.0
Hi Teeni- I am sure published writers have some one edit for them. Since I am not published nor do I even have an agent- I have to do it myself I suppose. I don’t think I am ready for some one else to look at it right now- let alone edit it. I generally let my husband at the very least read everything, but haven’t even let him look at it yet.
I think I am going to start working on some small writing prompts in the meantime- to get my creative brain a little more flexible again and out of this one sided, highly focused rut I am in.
Finish the dang book. Maybe we can have a race to see who can finish our novel first? Would that be sufficient motivation?
I know of someone–a fellow blogger–who does editing for a fee. Reasonable rates. I’ve already penciled her in to look at my novel, whenever I finish it.
Wow. That charm is AWESOME!
* I want to get a charm bracelet that spells the word WRITER in vintage typewriter keys.*
I can TOTALLY relate to what you said in this post, especially where you said, “It’s just that I have been struggling with editing a project for over a year now and seem to be obsessing with this book.” I am having the same problem. And instead of moving forward I keep going backwards and re-editing / changing things and generally driving myself INSANE.
My 90 year old grandfather keeps telling me to STOP. And just write, because no matter what, an actual EDITOR is going to make even more changes, so deal with editing then. And thinking like that is helping me get back on track.
I am VERY proud of you for sending out your finished work. That’s AWESOME. I hope when I am finally finished with my project I will be brave enough to do the same.
And, NO I dont think you should give up. Keep plugging along.
I know this feeling very well. I have an unedited novel which I abandoned a couple of years ago so that I could start something else. I still intend to go back to it, but I decided I needed the distance and I needed to feel the excitement of writing something new. I’ll go back to it one of these days, but so long as I was staring at it and not editing, it was stopping me from doing anything else.
Maybe you should take a break from it for a while, do something that excites you. And then you can come back to it fresh later.
Sorry I didn’t respond to all your comments this week- I had another birthday this week and am pretty much a senior citizen now!
Dan- I’ll let you know when I need that name for editing.
Thanks Meleah- I am not ready to giveup- in fact the beginning of the week I wrote some news material on it, instead of editing and I was quite pleased.
Jenny- I loved the link to the Character Project- I had been on there before but really didn’t get a chance to read until this last week. It was very enjoyable. I think that I might try to write some micro fiction when I go to my mothers house next weekend. I won’t have a computer and my mother may be an early bird so….
Yay! I hope you’ll share some of it with us… Glad you enjoyed The Character Project. I’ve taken the story you saw on my blog down now because it took up too much room on my page and it was looking a little intimidating! So I’m afraid your comment disappeared with it – but thank you for leaving it; sorry I never got round to replying!
That’s okay Jenny- I am actually on vacation and will be flying out to Denver tomorrow…. so I won’t be around until next week. I am taking a notebook and we’ll see how it goes, I won’t be gone very long.