Mag

Happy Friday, everyone! I hope you all have fun weekends ahead of you, and that you’re getting some good ideas of what to get your writer friends for Christmas.

Today, we’re talking about something that I haven’t received in a while, but something that I greatly enjoyed when I did receive it.

Subscriptions to Writing Magazines and/or Literary Magazines

In case it wasn’t obvious enough, writers like writing, and we like reading. We also like reading about writing, because we’re always learning new ways to expand our craft and change the way we view the world around us. Most of us like to learn, and a lot of that comes through more reading. We learned that in school, supposedly.

Anyway, if your writer friend is one that really enjoys learning about writing, or reading short stories and poetry to expand their view of their craft, then this is the gift to get them! Most of us, like I mentioned last time, tend not to spend a lot of money on our craft. That’s why we won’t have a ton of things like this. If we did have a subscription to a literary or writing magazine, we probably let it run out and didn’t renew because we didn’t want to spend the money.

If you’re settled and you want to go with a magazine subscription, I have a couple good recommendations for you:

Poets & Writers

People will argue that it’s not as good as it used to be, and I’d honestly agree, but it’s still a very good resource. It has listings for places where we can submit our work, resources to help us keep writing, and learning techniques for the craft, as well as some fun and useful information many of us wouldn’t have access to without the magazine. They also usually have a holiday deal going on. Woo!

Writer’s Digest

Again, some people will tell you that this one isn’t worth it. I disagree. I’ve learned a lot whenever I’ve had a subscription to Writer’s Digest, and I’ve really enjoyed almost every issue I’ve picked up. There are a plethora of great resources in here, plus an online community where we can connect with other writers. Awesome.

But those two are just for the writer who wants to learn. Some writers just want to read, to learn. We won’t tell you straight out that that’s what we’re doing, but it is. We read a lot because it helps us in our craft. So consider getting your writer friend a subscription to a literary or art magazine. They’re guaranteed to enjoy it! Poets need to read some short stories to help them balance their work, and novelists need to read some poetry and short stories to help them remember to vary their word use. We learn a lot by reading things we wouldn't normally see, which is where a literary magazine comes in handy.

And by the way, next year Mavguard will be rolling out a one to two year subscription plan! So soon, that will be an option for you as well.

Perfect!

[love]

{Rani D.}

P.S. Speaking of Mavguard... Head over to the RAD Blog to check out my Mavguard blog miniseries, every Friday this month!