Don’t get me wrong. Journals are lovely, and I have a drawer full. But there are other, and often better ideas for gift giving to a writer. If you have a writer stowed away in your attic, in a closet, or other suitably tight, dark place please consider some of the following ideas for this holiday season. And feel free to check out last year’s post on gifts for writers. Some gifts are timeless (like the gift of time) and appear on both lists.
Memberships & conferences
Writers pay a lot of money to belong to groups that support their blood-letting work. These groups host conferences and bring in editors and agents for your writer to meet. Writers need to network—if for no other reason than to kvetch over how tight our workspaces are. Some suggestions: FWA (Of course!), The Florida State Poets Association, The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, The Romance Writers of America, The Science Fiction Writers and Fantasy Writers of America. The list goes on. Take a tremulous journey up to the attic while your writer is passed out from agony and peek at what they’re writing. Then go find a suitable organization to bolster them. Create a gift coupon and fund a conference given by that writing organization. Writers need to get out and about!
Books
Always, books! Writers not only write books, but they are also voracious readers. Classics in the area they write in are a good bet (but check bookcases first to make sure they don’t already have a particular title). Also, craft books and books of writing inspiration for that 3am slog when your writer is wandering through the kitchen finally having decided that the body needs nourishing. Get them something to read while they have a little nosh. Some recommended titles include: The Poetry Home Repair Manual by Ted Kooser, Story by Robert McKee, The Heroine With a 1001 Faces by Maria Tatar, or Writing Picture Books by Ann Whitford Paul.
Tools of the trade
Does your writer need new technology? A new laptop? A new printer? Small portable projector for presentations? Sound system? (I have a handy dandy small one that will work in a school auditorium.) Or, perhaps, with all the Zooming we are doing lately, a better computer camera and ring light? Be a spy. Check out how your writer writes, or does group talks and school visits. Is he still using ocher to write on the walls of the basement? For goodness sake, get him updated! Here’s a handy little mobile scanner. I bought one and love it. Or maybe, with those reams of first drafts, a nice-sized paper shredder? (NOT to cast any aspersions upon final drafts, mind you!)
Software
There are some great programs and online subscriptions that ease the burden for your bleary-eyed writer. Here are a few that many writers feel are real necessities: Living Writer, Scrivener, Final Draft, (for writers of screenplays), Storyist (for Mac users). Also, there’s Prezi, a presentation software. And Duotrope a publisher database and submission manager.
Subscriptions
This should be thought of in conjunction with books. Are there craft or industry journals you know your writer would love? Or can you continue a subscription for him or her? Again, check out the writing closet/attic/basement. Snoop around and see what kinds of magazines they are reading. And take a quick peek in the loo. If your writer is using magazine pages in place of TP — I ’d recommend not resubscribing to that particular publication. (Unless, of course, you want to save the good stuff for the rest of the family.) Here are some to consider: Writer’s Digest, Publisher’s Weekly, and Poets & Writers.
Book-selling items
If your writer has books out in the world and attends book fairs and festivals, why not provide a box of handy items to help them selll those books? Easels, sign holders, book holders, markers, card display items, a credit card slide like Square (one of the best mobile credit card sliders), and a handy-dandy cart to tote everything around in. (Also, do throw in a bottle of water and a sandwich — just in case your writer is too weak to stand and talk to hundreds of folks in one day. And it wouldn’t hurt to include a comb, or some decent clothes.)
Fun stuff
What about getting items personally made that reflects your writer’s book(s), or interests? A coffee cup with the cover design of their book on it? A necklace or earrings with something pertinent to the book.Just search on “personalized gifts” at the Etsy site. Or what about a personalized face mask, blankie, pillow? (Surely your writer needs a pillow for their head when they collapses?) You can get that done at Printerpix.
Writer T-shirts
(This is assuming your writer occasionally comes out of their writing lair to change into something clean.) Check out FWA’s Etsy shop here. Zazzle.com is a fun place to find some. And there are more at Out of Print (including some pretty nice writer/nerd mugs). Or have a T-shirt personalized. I especially like Café Press’s create your own page where you can put a message to your writer on a T-shirt (and other things) like: Remember to put your pants on today. I made one for myself: Keep Calm and Edit Later.
Wine and a massage
These are always in season for writers! But I highly recommend getting someone else to do the massage if your writer is just finishing up NaNoWriMo and hasn’t bathed in a month.
Time
The best gift of all. Make up a couple of fun time to yourself coupons to be used at the writer’s discretion. A caveat: don’t give this gift if your writer tends to hide away for weeks at a time, anyway. Instead, give yourself a few we/I want you here coupons and pretend it was a gift from your writer to you. Be sure to squeal, “How thoughtful!” as you take them from your stocking. Your preoccupied writer won’t remember whether they gifted them or not.
Space
I must add this last item. If your writer is hunched over in a closet, or she’s always banging her head on the roof rafters, consider creating a bigger space where she can spread out her papyrus and really get down to work. Can you afford a redo/enlargement of a writing area? (I think I’ll circle this and slip it onto the spacious desk in my husband’s HUGE office.)
Finally, if you must, get a journal from one of those dollar bins by the checkout aisle. You can always insert into it that magazine renewal card you’re paying for, a gift card for wine, or a receipt for some online technology. (Just avoid the journals with pink unicorns. No writer needs more than one of those in a lifetime. To my secret admirer: please, no more!)
Now, excuse me while I step outside the closet to stretch. Ahh!!! Have a happy gift-giving season.
Diane Dobry
Great ideas!
Shutta Crum
Thanks, Diane. I hope you have a happy place to write. Merry Holidays, Shutta
Natasha
Love this!!! Sending it to my family!
Shutta Crum
Good!
Raymond Walker
What a great article, entertaining and informative. Something I have not thought to write about.
My wife once got me a special treat for Christmas. As a younger man I went hiking regularly and spent weeks in the old Caledonian forest and as you know a writer often takes inspiration from actual occurrences, so I had written of it often. The present was a walking holiday of four days, three nights in hotels along the route in the most remote part of wild Scotland. What a thoughtful and kind present.
Normally I am sequestered in my small corner of the dining room where the writing happens and have been for many years, rarely moving. I walked the hills, glens and forests of Scotland when I was in my twenties and thirties and very fit. When I received the present I was fifty seven and had gone to seed. Additionally when I went out as a youngster it was in the summer, a Christmas present; this was midwinter. Winters in Scotland can be harsh and walking in deep snow, even with snow shoes is exhausting. I arrived in Strontian via the ferry, which was late , (a small west highland village you cannot get to it by road) in the middle of a blizzard, out of shape and freezing with only twenty two miles to walk to the first hotel, a good meal and a warm bath; I set out. The trees are dense in the old forest (which was there before mankind ever strode the earth) and so I made good time at first until I fell in a fast flowing stream, swept the legs out from under me. At Minus ten and soaked I had to spend the night in a bole under a fir, until my clothes dried; it snowed all night. No sleep and the hotel still ten miles or so away. I was due to then walk ten miles plus another eighteen miles to the next hotel. Now twenty eight miles is do-able in the summer as a young man but there was another thing. A mountain was in the way. I trudged on for another two or three miles, the snow was four or five feet deep by then. That bad a sea level, it was going to be horrendous up on the mountain. I turned back. Took me another day to get back to Strontian and the ferry. Waited three hours for a bus on the other side of the loch and then caught three different trains to get home. I arrived back at almost exactly the time I was supposed to. Of course I should have enjoyed three lovely days walking and nice hotels each evening. Lol- I never even reached the first hotel. Felt like Jack London in the Klondike.
Shutta Crum
Oh, my goodness!!! This is a great story. Write it up! Sorry the gift did not turn out as planned. But you have the gift of an interesting memory.
Donna Gephart
What a fun post! Thanks, Shutta!