Holiday Gift Guide for Romance Writers

The holidays are fast approaching, which means it’s time to start thinking of great ideas to give that special romance novelist in your life. Instead of gifting them yet another mug printed with a clever writing-related quip, or a stack of blank notebooks (although, frankly, we can never get enough blank notebooks), try thinking outside the box this year. Here are a few fun, novel ideas to get you started.

• Subscription to Focus@Will. When we’re churning away at our novels, we need to block out the rest of the world and focus on nothing else but our words. Sometimes this can be hard to do, especially for those of us who fit our writing in among the chaos of day jobs and families. Something I’ve personally found helpful is Focus@Will, a music service that is specifically designed – and scientifically proven – to help improve concentration. You can give gift accounts in 3-month, 12-month, and lifetime intervals.
• Aqua Notes. Ask any author: the best ideas always come to us while we’re showering. Half the time, we’re running out of the bathroom, naked and covered in suds, eager to jot that brilliant plot point down on a soggy piece of paper before we lose it forever. With a pad of waterproof paper suction-cupped to the shower wall, though, we can capture our ideas while we’re still in the middle of shampooing our hair.
• 642 Things to Write About. We all have those days when the words just don’t flow as fluidly as we want (or need) them to. Sometimes, the best way to combat writer’s block is to write about something totally random and off-the-wall. Writing prompts are notorious for helping us out from our ruts, and a book with 642 of them provides almost two years’ worth of ideas – whether it’s brainstorming a new story or getting unstuck from a tricky plot point.
• Plot Your Work Planner. This is a new one, and still in a beta-testing round, but doesn’t it sound cool? Well, to the novelist in your life it might sound cool, even if it doesn’t to you. For authors who are juggling multiple projects at once, this planner helps them break down their massive monoliths into manageable chunks of work, scheduling their entire year with goals, focus items, and mind maps. As of this publication, they should be available for order during the first week of December, with plenty of time to ship before the holidays.
• Gift Certificate to The Ripped Bodice. We all need to refill our creative wells from time to time, and the best way for a romance novelist to do that is to read more romance novels! Give the writer in your life a gift to The Ripped Bodice, the only bookstore in the United States to focus exclusively on romance. They offer online-only gift codes, so even if you can’t make it to their brick-and-mortar storefront in LA, you can still indulge in the romance-y goodness available online.

These are just a few creative ideas to help inspire your favorite romance novelists to write more and write better in 2017. Any ideas I left off? Feel free to leave them in the comments!