More writing resources
One Look Thesaurus:
free, ad-free, comprehensive, with helpful sub-categories in the tabs and useful advanced filters like "begins with letter". My first thesaurus stop.
Thesaurus.com:
lots of moving ads but useful for more constrained / exact searches.
Reverse Dictionary: the best for finding types of things by category, eg "ornamental".
Wordnik:
their lists of "Related"
words is handy for broader searches.
Thesaurasize:
another handy onefor finding types / examples of things, given as an unsorted list to skim
Merriam-Webster's
Visual Dictionary: elusive names of parts
Visual Dictionary: better search-function than Webster's
Hex-Hub
Colours: originally for html codes, great colour names
Using
English: idioms: handy idioms search, good categories
Free
Dictionary: idioms: richer lists but no search by
meaning, only by idioms using that word
Rhyme Zone: substantial lists of rhymes by syllable count, including short phrases, with colour and bolding to distinguish the more frequently used words / phrases
Dictionary of Similes: rich collections across literature to inspire you
Behind
the Name: huge, great searches, every language &
era
Behind
the Surname: huge, great searches, every language
& era
Popular
UK names: latest stats with downloadable spreadsheets
Popular
US names: rankings searchable for any year after 1879
3 traits: 3 randomised character traits, often an inspiring mix with useful contradictions / complexity
Quick cameo: Randomly generated quick character cameo, ideal for walk-on parts, writing exercises, and getting started
Job ideas: Randomly generated lists of jobs, to inspire a wider range of possibilities for your character
Bucket List Hobbies: Extensive list of hobbies, to inspire a wider range of possibilities for your character
Location Works: Massive archive of interiors and exteriors, with lots of photos for each so you can really embed the detail and atmosphere
Location Partnerships: Another massive archive of interiors and exteriors, with lots of photos and a sense of the surroundings as well
121 Locations: List of 121 types of locations for story settings, including ones that might not occur to you, with inspiring pics
Atlas Obscura: Map of the world's most extraordinary sights with one-click previews to inspire stunning locations in every climate.
Pexels: Copyright-free photos & videos. The videos are great for writing more active description. The search in the link is set to "seaside": search for whatever you need.
The Deep Sea: Neal Agarwal's scrollable site through to the ocean floor, with the creatures you find at each depth.
Earth Roulette: A Random travel generator for unusual/interesting settings, with photos and info.
Map Crunch: Randomised Google street-views from all over the world: great for inspiration and practising description.
Azgaar maps: Free world-map generator with heaps of options. Use the maps as is, tweak them, or create your own from scratch.
City generator: Generate maps and customise them by city size and adding/removing features, plus change the colours/text.
Village generator: Generate village layyouts and tweak the details. More visually clear and manageable than cities, esp for practising describing locations.
Use these as springboards for writing exercises and to get a feel for the essential ingredients of a story or what elements you personally need in place to start writing. NB: The generators are random generators using databases, not AI.
Mystery Plot Generator: From Reedsy, with great character snippets and a spot-on range of ingredients to get you started. You can also use the dropdown to choose another genre.
Quick Plot Generator: The essential bare bones for a story: a character, their defining characteristic, an opening setting, a key event, a theme, and your character's aim.
Big Huge Labs Plot List: Randomly generated list of story ideas, great for getting you started and probing story ideas with who/what/where/when/why questions.
Servicescape Prompts: Rich ideas across a range of sub-genres in fantasy, romance, and sci-fi. Use these to practise skills like picking locations for events, zooming into scenes, fleshing out characters, and mapping story tension.
Tools and resources for creating Imaginary Worlds (fantasy, science fiction, and all the related genres). I've repeated links from other sections if they're especially useful for world-building.
MyNoise: Professional soundscapes for medieval villages, spaceships, old libraries, ocean life, etc, with sliders to tweak the elements.
Ambient-Mixer: Crowd-sourced soundscapes with a huge range plus specific categories for fantasy, science fiction, and steampunk. Also lets you mix your own soundscapes.
Azgaar maps: Free world-map generator with heaps of options, tools, styles, etc. Use the autogenerated maps as is, tweak them, or create your own from scratch.
City generator: Generate maps and customise them by city size and adding/removing features eg castles, river, coast, plus change the colours/text.
Village generator: Generate village maps and customise them by size and adding/removing features, plus change the colours/text.
Atlas Obscura: Map of the world's most extraordinary sights with one-click previews to inspire stunning locations in every climate.
Steampunk London: Incredibly detailed OS maps of Victorian London (specifically, 1893-95), with easy online browsing.
Roman travel times: Calculate travel times for ancient-Rome style civilisations, with options for different seasons, travel by ship, horse, foot, donkey, plus the cost of it all.
Pitt Rivers Museum: Anthropological collections across cultures. Explore their Selected Objects from the Lower Gallery and their
Ethnography and Archaeology Collections research sites to inspire you for cultural possibilities
Medieval price lists: Genuine medieval prices, complete with assorted wages, to compare the respective worth of things, esp in terms of a labourer's day wage.
Middle English Translator Accurate translations into Middle English, for all those medieval-esque texts
Behind the Name: A hugely comprehensive list of names which you can browse by language, meaning, gender (incl unisex), etc. It also has ancient, medieval, and mythological names in a bunch of languages.
Reverse Dictionary: Heaps of types-of-things, whether you need little boats, tropical fruit, words about ink or spaceships... a one-click brainstorm to fill your world. (Make sure you scroll below the ad at the bottom.)
Writing prompt generator: Heaps of lovely plot outlines (handmade, not ran-gend) in fantasy and sci-fi, with extensive sub-genres
Weird Animals: 70 of our weirdest animals, handily categorised by type, to inspire you for inventing your own fauna
Mythical Creatures: Wikipedia's comprehensive list of legendary creatures, to inspire you for inventing your own
This is an idiosyncratic list of sites I've found useful, rather than a comprehensive one. Some of the categories lean towards US/UK info, but I've started with more general links wherever possible. If you have a great link you'd like to share, please email me so I can add it.
Pitt Rivers Museum: Anthropological collections across cultures. Explore their Selected Objects from the Lower Gallery and their
Ethnography and Archaeology Collections research sites
The Collector's Companion: Fashion items and daily objects from ancient times to 1990s
Advertising archives from before 1900s to present day. NB: To search by decade, don't click on the decade image. Go to the Menu bar, click Search, then type in the decade, eg "1980s". This brings far more results.
Edwardian Promenade: Timeline, slang, and famous women of the Edwardian era
Vintage Dancer: Clothing by decade from Victorian times to 1980s
Retrowow:
Retro furniture, style and fashion in Britain from the
1950s to 1980s. (The site itself is now also a bit retro!)
Middle English Translator Accurate translations into Middle English, for all those medieval texts
US
Number-one hits from Wikipedia
UK
Number-one singles from Wikipedia
UK
Met Office: Past weather events from 1990 onwards;
climate summaries by month and season from 2001 onwards
US
Naval Observatory: Sun and moon data for a year, searchable
Behind
the Name: Database of names and meanings from all cultures,
including names from ancient civilisations (Matching site
for surnames: Behind
the Surname)
UK
Office for National Satistics: Most popular UK
baby names, downloadable, from 1904 to 1994 and from 1996 to the most recent data.
SSA
baby names: Most popular US baby names, searchable
by year, from 1879 onwards
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