Gifts for writers and MFA students
Is the writer in your life hard to buy for? Here are five of my favorite writerly indulgences to give the muse a little nudge. Whether your writer is a luddite or an early adapter, you’ll find something on this list to love.
I can recommend everything on this list, because these are things I’ve purchased for myself and use all the time.
1. Moleskine Smart Writing Set (currently $50 off)
What it is: an analog pen and notebook for the digital age. Write with actual ink on actual paper using the Moleskine smartpen, which is made of aluminum and has a nice heft. Your handwriting (or doodles) appear in real-time on your tablet or phone and can easily be converted to images, PDF, or transcribed into text.
Why I love it: Creativity experts say pen-to-paper is better than typing for getting the ideas to flow. I have a lot of notebooks lying around, dating back twenty years, with scraps of different novels and stories and research spread out among multiple notebooks. This means a lot of what I write gets lost. Although excavating my notebooks for lost writing can be an adventure in itself, it’s not exactly efficient. That’s where smartpens come in.
I got the first Livescribe pen when it came out several years ago. I really enjoyed the process but found the pen a bit bulky for my small hands, so eventually I stopped using it. The Moleskine Pen+ is sleeker, more lightweight, smaller, and comes with a smaller price tag. Here are my three favorite things about the Moleskine Pen+:
- It will convert your handwritten text into digital text, which you can then put in your Word file. That means you don’t have to transcribe your whole story or novel.
- Your converted text is searchable, just like a Word file would be.
- You can switch from page to page in your Moleskine smart notebook just as you would in a regular notebook, and the app recognizes which page you’re on.
Price: The pen and notebook set is currently $149, reduced from $199.
Get the Moleskine Pen+ Smart Writing Set on Amazon.
2. Rocketbook ($37)
If you like writing by hand but aren’t ready for the Moleskine price tag, Rocketbook is fantastic. You write in the notebook using any Pilot Frixion pen. Then you scan the pages in your free Rocketbook app, which automatically transcribes your handwriting to text and lets you send your pages to Evernote, Google Drive, and other services with one tap. The scanning is really quick and intuitive — just hold your phone over the page and Rocketbook picks it up automatically. The transcription isn’t perfect, but it’s really impressive considering that not even my husband can read my handwriting.
This is a terrific budget option, because the pens are inexpensive (you get one with your notebook, and a pack of 6 is about $10) and widely available and, best of all, you only have to buy one notebook. After scanning your work, just wipe down the page with the included microfiber cloth, and you just keep using the same pages over and over again. I’ve had mine for three weeks and have wiped down the pages several times, and it works beautifully. I use mine in bed because I have a strict no-computer-in-bed rule.
Get the Rocektbook writing set on Amazon.
3. STET! Dreyer’s English: A Game for Language Lovers, Grammar Geeks, and Bibliophiles ($19.99)
What it is: a card game for serious word nerds
Why I love it: Bejnamin Dreyer was the chief copy editor on my last book over at Random House. His comments and queries were always incisive and enlightening, so when he came out with a book, Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Grammar and Style, I had to get my hands on it stat (notstet, Dreyer would remind you). Now there’s a card game! So if you’re looking for a hostess gift for your next MFA party (not that MFA candidates bring hostess gifts, in my recollection), here’s the description from Clarkson Potter, the company that makes the game:
Based on the New York Times bestseller by Random House’s copy chief Benjamin Dreyer, STET! will help you sharpen those language skills or give you a reason to show them off (you know who you are). There are 100 entertaining sentences waiting for you, the copyeditor, to correct — or, alternatively, to STET.
Price: $19.99
4. Scrivener ($49)
What it is: an app to help you organize your writing into chapters, research, scenes, and more
Why I love it: the corkboard interface is really attractive and intuitive, allowing you to see the layout of your novel in a very visual way. The highly customizable, hierarchical ranking of folders, files, and research is a great fit for anyone using an intuitive, non-linear process.
How I use it: Once I’m committed to a novel, I tend to go back and forth between paper notebooks and my laptop. I often write the first few pages on paper or in Word, just to get into the flow and make sure it’s something worth writing. Eventually, I migrate to Scrivener. Scrivener does require a bit of a learning curve, but it’s worthwhile if you do a lot of research. The program has rich features for organizing and saving text and visual research, as well as multi-media files. I was an early adopter, switching from PCs to Mac back in 2009 just so I could get Scrivener, which at the time was only available for Mac (now it’s also available for Windows.)
Scrivener is also a useful tool for those of you writing your novel with The Paperclip Method, because Scrivener allows you to move your scenes and chapters around on a visual cor board. Since The Paperclip Method rewards non-linear, intuitive writing and favors fragments, scenes, and sketches that you later weave into the novel, Scrivener is a great organizing tool.
Price: $49 and worth every penny (It’s only about $41 for students and teachers)
5. A beautiful notebook
It’s iconic, practical, portable, battery-free, and inexpensive, and every writer should have at least one. Of course, I’m talking about Moleskine notebooks. They’re so beautiful, you don’t even have to wrap them. I have a shelf full of them. Hardbound, with smooth, gorgeous pages that entice you to open up and start writing. They come in several different sizes to fit in your purse or in somebody’s stocking.
The price: Starting at just $12.99, these are a very affordable little luxury.
Get Moleskine notebooks from Amazon.
*This post contains affiliate links. I have personally purchased and regularly use every product listed here, and I can vouch for all of them! Write to me if you have questions about any of these things.
Michelle Richmond is the New York Times bestselling author of five novels, including the psychological thriller The Marriage Pact, which has been published in 30 languages. She helps writers complete their fist novels though Novel in Nine and Novel in Five.
Originally published at The Caffeinated Writer.
