Last-Minute Gifts for the Writers in Your Life

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By Gayle Francis Moffet

So, you know writers, writers who is serious about their work and getting their names out there. And it’s the holiday season, and you want to get your writers something that shows you understand that writing is work and takes a lot of effort, but you don’t want to default to the old “here is a nice journal and new pen” route.

What’s a gift giver to do? Well, consider any of the following options:

1.       A Gift Certificate for a Duotrope Account ($5-$50)

Come the first of the year, Duotrope is going to a paid subscription service. If you don’t know about Duotrope, it’s a website dedicated to market listings for writers. Writers search listings for places to submit their work. Duotrope will be charging $50 for a year’s subscription, but writers can also pay by the month for $5 a month. If they don’t pay on a particular month, they won’t have access to all of Duotrope’s features, but their information will always be saved for when they come back. You can get a gift certificate for a subscription right here.

Perfect for: writers with short fiction, poetry, or non-fiction to submit; writers who want to go small press with their books;

2.       A Copy of Scrivener ($40-$45; Mac and Windows OS)

Personally, I’m comfortable with Microsoft Word and lots of open tabs in my browser, but I know plenty of writers who swear by Scrivener and its ability to help them stay organized as they write. Scrivener’s got a lot of features that a lot of writers I know find incredibly useful, and all that usefulness helps motivate them to keep writing. You can buy a license for Scrivener right here.

Perfect for: writers who are big on organization; writers who mention needing a different way to write than Microsoft Word and lots of browser tabs.

3.       Books on Craft (varies)

Books on the craft of writing can be difficult to sort through. Some of them are excellent. Others are…not excellent, and it’s possible the writers you know may think you’re passive-aggressively trying to tell them that they should practice more. But, then again, they’re writers. They should be practicing more. So, where to start in the books on craft? Ask at the bookstore. They’ll be able to tell you what’s been selling the most and what’s been selling the longest. Longevity is sort of key to books on craft. Stephen King’s On Writing (great for any prose writer you know) has been selling well for over a decade. Will Eisner’s Comics and Sequential Art (my preferred go-to for comic book writing*) has been in circulation since 1985. It’s not that newer books can’t be useful, but if you start with the classics, you can be certain the writers in your life are getting lessons that are pretty universal.

Perfect for: writers who learn by reading; writers who want to see how the big names do it; writers generally interested in understanding their craft.

4.       Coffee. Tea. Juice. Soda. (varies)

So Coffee Mood by Daria Sapphire

Writers are a thirsty lot. Personally, I drink two cups of coffee every morning before switching to decaf tea and water for the rest of the day. I know writers who only drink specific things when writing because it’s become part of their process. Find out what that drink is and buy them some. Make sure to stay specific as possible. I live in a coffee town, and there’s a lot of debate between Stumptown vs. Public Domain vs. Back Porch Coffee Roasters vs. Starbucks (Starbucks is generally seen as the lowest form, but I can’t hear you over my delicious, standard caffeine), and I’m betting the writers you know are equally picky. There’s a difference between Earl Gray and Lady Gray, and there’s a difference between Mountain Dew Code Red and Mountain Dew regular. The good news is, this one’s really easy to check. Just poke around in their cupboards a bit, and you’ll know.

Perfect for: writers who get particular about their drinks; writers who require caffeine to live; writers in general

So, there you go. Four last-minute gifts to show the writers in your life that you want them productive and working! It is—honestly and with complete sincerity—one of the greatest gifts you can give to a writer in process.

*I am certain comic writers reading this were expecting to see me recommend Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics, and while I find it a good book with useful information, I feel Eisner is superior because he relies on practical advice where McCloud can fall into some pretty dense art theory. Also, keep in mind that McCloud heavily references Eisner’s work on the topic of comic creation to write Understanding Comics.

Holiday Writing Survival Tips

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By Rob Hines

The bells are jingling and the halls are reasonably decked.  'Tis the season to be merry, and if you’re staying productive while you celebrate with kith and kin, good for you!

For the rest of us, the colorful lights and onslaught of cookies and candy are also jolly reminders that we’re not getting much writing done.

If you’re feeling the pressure of the season and wondering how you can feel like you’re still moving your writing forward, I've put a few tips together.  If you’d like, you can read these suggestions as you play your favorite instrumental holiday tune.

1. Download Evernote on your phone or other portable device.  You’ll probably have a bunch of great writing ideas as you celebrate the holidays, but you’ll probably also find yourself in festive situations where it’s not easy to get to a keyboard to take them down.  Evernote has been my go-to app for notetaking at all hours.  Just create a few folders to organize and prioritize your ideas however you’d like.  Novel, short story, script.  Good, bad, so-so.  Drunk, buzzed, sober.  Whatever you think will keep your thoughts in order.
2. Remember everything you see and hear from your family, even the crazy stuff.  Especially the crazy stuff.  We love our families, but there’s a strange feeling of stress that begins to creep in every year as the holidays approach.  That feeling comes from the certainty that your family will say and do things that will make you question your genetic composition.  My challenge to you is to embrace the inevitable lunacy and channel your stress creatively to transform your holiday experiences into amazing story and character ideas.  Just make sure you change the names and places to keep future holidays from getting weird.  Unless you really want to send a message.  That’s your deal.
3. Finally, I grant you all permission to find inspiration in cheese.  You can try to avoid them all you want, but I defy anyone to make it all the way through the holidays without being subjected to one or more traditional holiday movies.  By the way, when it comes to holiday movies, the word “traditional” really means “you have to watch these saccharin flicks that no one watched when they came out because you’re not really celebrating if you don’t.”  But I’m not completely condemning our beloved holiday movies.  In fact, I've come to realize that these films have weaseled their way into our artistic lexicon, and since they’re so ubiquitous we can use them to inspire our own writing.  Want to write a story about small town life?  Study A Christmas Story.  Pondering personal triumph?  Explore It’s A Wonderful Life.  Thinking about a story of redemption?  Just watch any of the million Scrooge movies.  Okay, you could also read the Dickens classic, but you’re stuck in front of the TV anyway so you might as well use the Cliffs Notes version.  Are these movies great art?  Of course not, but they've done something that every writer wishes could happen to his or her work.  They've become beloved.  They've become part of our culture to the point that writers from every medium still include allusions to these classic stories in their works.  Don't be shy about doing the same thing with your own special touch.

Will these next few weeks be busy?  Yep.  Will you experience a strange cocktail of anxiety, stress and childlike joy?  Probably.  But there’s no reason why you can’t celebrate the holiday of your choice (or all of them) and still be a productive writer.  Just don’t blame me if you go all Hemingway and develop an egg-nog addiction.

Happy Holidays Everyone!