Best Gifts You Should Give a Writer

It's part two of this week's special roundup with the UB bloggers. And with Christmas days away of course today's post is about gifts. And in particular, gifts you'd like to receive, as a writer.

Chrys

Well, I wish I could get an agent for the book I’m shopping around, but that’s not something anyone could give me. Although, it is my biggest Christmas wish.

A few good gifts for writers are a couple of ink cartridges, a portable keyboard, a lifetime subscription for Microsoft Office Home and Student, a bookcase, and Scrabble. But the best gift of all would be purchasing one of their books (if they’re published), reading it, and posting a review on Amazon and Goodreads. This gift is priceless.

Marcy

Gifts: Definitely buy an author's books (and tweet about them!), a good pen (I like the Micron 005, which is probably too fine for many but I draw, too, and it is so smooth AND it's archival), maybe a wireless mouse (those pesky wires), Roget's Thesaurus (if they don't already have it), or any one of the following: Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass, Sin and Syntax by Constance Hale, and a foreign language dictionary (very helpful if you write fantasy, imo), an adult coloring book with some good colored pencils, and hand lotion (the good stuff you get at the nice shops that smells divine).

CD Coffelt

Gifts for Writers. Easy-Peasy. Notebooks, pens. How about an external drive to backup your precious manuscripts? An Amazon Prime membership. Or a gift card to Dreamtime or IStockphotos.


Angi


There are several things that I feel would be the best gifts for a writer. First, there are the obvious big-ticket items. A new laptop or computer; writing or editing software; enrollment in one of the proven writing workshops, like Clarion; an external drive for storing previous works and the current WIP; a new printer; or ink and paper for the new printer or for their current printer.

Yeah, those are all dream items, but not everyone has the finances for those types of purchases. So for those whose funds are a bit more limited, there are always other options. Notebooks; pens and/or pencils; writing books like Writer’s Market, On Writing Horror for your Horror writers and other genre specific books for writers of other genres, as well as police procedurals for writers who might write mysteries. On second thought, police procedurals are great for any writer to have, simply because police procedure might pop up in other genres as well. There might be a murder in a romance, or someone might be arrested in a horror manuscript, and that author needs to know just enough about police procedure to know if their scenes involving the police are accurate. Medical references are also good, so the author will know if the injuries they described from a car accident are in keeping with the description of the accident. They also need to know if any activities they described the character doing after the accident would be possible with the described injuries. Other books would include Elements of Style, The Chicago Manual of Style, and On Writing. On Writing doesn’t take you through proper grammar and sentence structure, but there’s some sound advice in it, along with a good dose of humor as you read about the early life of Stephen King. And we can always use some comic relief in life, right?

Other great ideas are gift cards for Books-A-Million, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or other bookstores. Those are great because if you’re not sure what types of books the writer wants or needs, they can decide for themselves. They might even choose to pick a book for reading pleasure, and I agree with Stephen King’s assertion that writers should both write a lot and read a lot. Filing cabinets can also be a good idea for the author, depending on the individual writer’s needs.

And don’t forget the nice little gifts that will allow the writer to pamper herself or himself! A favorite perfume or cologne; a day of R&R; or something else that you know is near and dear to the writer’s heart.

Hope this gave you some interesting ideas for the writer in your life!

Me

Books. Books, books, books. Did I already say books? Everyone knows I'm a book lover but for the life of me, only once did I receive a book as a gift. And that was when I was a little girl and the director of the daycare I went to, who noticed I loved to read, gifted me Fudge-A-Mania. Loved that book so much that it became in tatters. Unfortunately, I don't have that book anymore because it was thrown out one day by my mom/aunt during a move. Hint, most writers like to read. So even if you don't know which book to get, they pretty much make it easy for you. Just check out the writer's Goodreads library shelf. And whatever they haven't read yet and what they want to read, you get. Another good gift to give a writer are pens. Yes, pens. And I'm talking about the nice ones that seems to siphon the words from you like flowing water. Also, giving a good review. There's no greater gift than that too. You can also give extra adapters (especially in my case), USB drives or a tablet with keyboard works too.


What other gifts you'd like to add to give to a writer?