WritersLife.org: The Best Christmas Gifts For Writers

With Christmas approaching, what do you plan to get the writers in your life as a gift? Here is what Writerslife.org suggests:

A diary

Writers often find it difficult to juggle their time effectively. Buy them a great diary to help them! A diary is useful for keeping up with all the appointments and ‘to do’ lists of everyday life, but you could also encourage them to have a separate ‘writing’ diary. They could use this to keep track of their writing, to schedule in time to write and to set aims and goals for themselves. It might just be the best present you’ve ever given them.

A notebook

Writers are nothing without their notebooks, and for most, it is a true pleasure to pull theirs out and scribble in ideas, words, quotes, and pictures of things that help them create. Make their note taking a true pleasure by getting them a notebook you know they will love. They might prefer a pocket-sized thing that is easy to carry around or a great heaving beast they can cram with cuttings and write in until it’s all falling to bits and bursting at the seams!

I already have one or two of both of these, but I guess the more the better.

A writing retreat

If you want to treat your writer to a truly special gift this Christmas, why not book them on a writers retreat? This is the perfect gift for those writers who want to get more writing done but never feel they have any time to do it. Give them this as a Christmas gift, and then they’ll have no excuse!

Well, I guess this all depends on location, for me anyway. I'm not sure about a retreat, per se, but I have been wanting to attend a writer's conference. The local bar owner in my town has mentioned going to several already, and I believe she said something about one coming up in San Francisco next February. I live only about 100 miles from SF, so that might be a good idea.  I'm still hoping to find a writers group nearby to get some feedback, but still to no avail. 

A word a day books

Words are a writer’s best friend, but they can also be pesky little troublemakers at times. Make sure your loved one never gets writer’s block again with a word a day book. There are loads of different versions out there which help writers expand their vocabulary, learn the history and origin of different words and discover some great new parts of the English language they never knew existed!

Story cubes

Story cubes are the perfect gift for writers! Whenever they get stuck for something to write, they can use these great little cubes to come up with ideas for new ones. They are so much fun to use and brilliant for motivating writers to get down to work as well.

 I guess I could use either of these. And by coincidence, I saw something last week at Walgreens that appeared to be the above-mentioned story cubes. I thought about getting them myself, but hesitated. Maybe later, if no one decided to give them to me, which I doubt :) When I saw these things at the store, I was reminded of an exercise I used in my class a few months ago:

This is basically the same idea as the story cubes, using standard dice and ideas from the list above. 

A collection of books you think they’d love

 Writers love to read, and the more we read, the better we get at our craft. Why not give a writer a selection of different books you think would inspire them or just ones that you hold dear yourself? Write a little note in each explaining why you think they would love it – they are sure to find it truly touching, and you never know, it might inspire their next great novel!

I bet most of you would agree on this one. Or would you let them decide for themselves by giving them a gift card to either Barnes & Noble or Amazon? 

Writing software

A more practical gift, but still a good one. There is some brilliant writing software out there that can really help the writer in your life with getting that novel down and keeping track of editing. It might not be pretty or romantic, but they are still sure to appreciate it.

I must confess I'm still using my old computer, but that will be changing soon. More to come.  

I'm sure gifts for writing aren't just limited to those quoted from the article. I was immediately reminded of something I bought several years ago when I worked at Home Goods. 

The No Plot? No Problem! Novel-Writing Kit Hardcover – September 14, 2006

by Chris Baty  (Author)4.3 out of 5 stars

Some people I know didn't think this seems like a real way to help writers, that it seems more like a gag gift. I haven't tried to use it, but who knows? It might be fun. The result might be ridiculous, but may evolve into something worth writing and revising. There is even a new updated version of the kit.  And the entry suggests similar items including the Amazing Story Generator and the Writer's Toolbox: Creative Games and Exercises for Inspiring the "Write" Side of Your Brain,  among other items. 

What do you think of these ideas? Would you give these to the writers in your life? If you are a writer, would you like to receive any of these?