Here’s a screenie of what it would be like if a nuclear blast went off in my area. Pretty crazy right?
Time Lapse
Time travel, virtually and geologically. Watch the world change over the course of nearly three decades of satellite photography.
And here’s a screenie of the Time Lapse website panned in to the Oil Sands. I peeked through the years to see how much the Sahara Desert changed over time. It’s pretty wild.
Exit Mundi
Exit Mundi is a fantastic collection of end-of-the-world scenarios. Spoiler Alert: For example, remember in Marvels Infinity War, after the snap, when people just started to crumble into thin air? Yeah, that was great. 😢 Exit Mundi goes in-depth into what the big crumble would really be like for people on Earth. Yikes. For us writers, it can be incredible useful! But R.I.P. Subway guy.
History and humanity
Ancient History Encyclopedia
From mind-blowing ancient architecture, to prehistoric artwork, this website is a goldmine of historical information. This website even has historical event timeline!
On This Day In History
At the time of writing this blog post, the Spanish explorer Hernan Cortes is driven from Tenochtitlan and retreats to Tlaxcala, The statue of King George III is pulled down in New York City, Wyoming becomes the 44th state, Germany begins the bombing of England, and Kenyan runner Yobes Ondieki becomes the first man to run 10,000 meters in less than 27 minutes—I had no clue all of these events happened on the same day, over different years. It’s so fascinating and can be really useful for writing books spiced with a little history.
Historical Pics
Historical Pics is stashed in a little corner of the internet, called Facebook. But I like to call it time-waster-extraordinaire, because I always get caught scrolling through this page for hours on end. There’s so many incredible photos from Dovima posing with elephants in a Paris circus, 1955 to a giant human chess game played 100 years ago in Leningrad, Soviet Union.
Inspiration
Looking for inspiration to get the creative juices flowing? Have no fear! These two websites are known for their ability to light a spark in even the driest of writers.
Pintrest
Infact, Pintrest users coined the term/hashtag #inspo due to the ability to inspire almost anything in anyone who happens to find themselves down the rabbit hole of aesthetic pins and boards.
The Moth
The Moth is an incredible website that will surely inspire you to hone your craft of storytelling and deep dive into humanity’s stories. The Moth is dedicated to sharing engaging, well-crafted stories that honor the diversity and commonality of human experience. (And their stories come in text and audio formats!)
Location and worldbuilding
Google Earth
“The Sieka of Sahn’Jatar” is set in my fictional world of Aviiyen, but the desert is inspired by the Sahara over in the middle east and Google Earth was so useful in bringing that story to life. I’ve never been to the Sahara Desert but I would love to go there in person someday. For now, I’ll just visit from my computer screen.
Zillow
If you’ve done some house hunting lately, then you know how useful Zillow can be for finding the next perfect place to live. But you might not know how great it is for house inspiration for your novel characters! Much like Google Earth, Zillow is great for visualizing locations and helping to bring your story’s fictional setting to life.
Here’s a screenie from Zillow! While one day, I hope to move to Seattle, for now I can happily write about my dream city from the comfort of my Oklahoma home.
100,000 Stars
Earlier in this list, I mentioned people wanting to yeet themselves into space by hitching a ride on SpaceX’s rideshare cargo but now you don’t have to do that! Just check out 100,000 Stars for a stellar interactive visualization experience with the stars! As per their website: “From their website: “100,000 Stars hows the location of 119,617 nearby stars derived from multiple sources, including the 1989 Hipparcos mission. Zooming in reveals 87 individually identified stars and our solar system. The galaxy view is an artist's rendition based on NGC 1232, a spiral galaxy like the Milky Way.”
Here’s a screenie of the 100,000 Stars website. Pretty amazing right?
Geoguessr
So, you think you’re a worldbuilding pro? Let’s find out just how well you know your setting with Geoguessr—a website that transports you into a place with one goal in mind: to determine where you are on the map. You can play across the global map or try and identify famous locations from spectacular natural wonders to astonishing man-made structures.
And here’s a screenie from Geoguessr. Any ideas where this satellite image is from?
Murder and Horror
Okay so these websites might not be for the faint of heart, but I promise, we have some more happier/positive items to come later in this list! But these potentially disturbing websites can prove super useful for writers working on murder mystery novels and horror/thriller.
Homicide Monitor
A worldwide homicide map where you can see how many people were killed where. This might be useful if you’re writing a novel and need homicide statistics or in need of a story idea. However, you might want to avoid looking up you town… 😬
Goodbye Warden
This website has a chilling list of last words from 565 Texas death row inmates.
Murderpedia
Murderpedia is a free online encyclopedic dictionary of murderers and the largest database about serial killers and mass murderers around the world.
Names
Baby Names
Pretty self-explanatory, but if you’re trying to find the perfect name for your main protagonist, Baby Names is the site for you!
Behind The Name
Maybe you already have your names picked out but you want to do a little more research on their origins or meanings? Check out Behind the Name for in-depth etymology on almost any name you can imagine.
(A great honorable mention (because it’s not a website, but a book rather, is Llewellyn's Complete Book of Names. There are thousands of names in this book and it was a life-saver for me when trying to come up with names for my WIP fantasy series.)
Strange, but useful facts
Uber Facts
Once again, we have another time-suck of a webpage, but truthfully I love this one as much as the Historical Pics Page. This is a Facebook page that puts out some of the most interesting facts I’ve ever seen. Save facts for story ideas or go down the rabbit hole of interesting information.
Today I Found Out
Want to know why kids learn languages fast than adults? Or maybe you want to read more about why the human heart doesn’t get tired like other muscles? The Today I Found Out website is a great place for random, interesting information that might inspire your writing.
How Stuff Works
Who came up with aglets? How (and why) is the U.S. Experiencing a coin shortage? Is French press really the best coffee? How Stuff Works has all the answers you could ever want and more.
Cool Interesting Stuff
From chilling true-crime mysteries to alien autopsies and urban legends, Cool Interesting Stuff has tons of random, weird, and borderline creepy facts to inspire your next thriller. Pro Tip: Don’t read this website before bed.
Oddee
Oddee is a website that entertains million of visitors every month with stories about parrots teaching each other to swear (and then laugh about it) and brain-eating amoebas found in Texas water supplies—Yikes!
Space Facts
Did you know there’s a couple of dwarf planets named Eris and Makemake, or that Eris was once considered for the position of tenth planet? I didn’t! And that’s exactly why we need this site. I love space and talking about all things celestial, but I need more of it in my life. Since my books are sort of sci-fi and fantasy genre bending, this site is great for all kinds of stellar facts.
And that’s it for my list of 25 strangely useful websites for writers! What did you think of this list? Have you ever used any of these sites for your own writing? Do you have any ideas that are missing from this list? Let me know in the comments below!