Now in its 24th year, the Annual 101 Best Websites for Writers list has been singling out some of the best resources for aspiring and established writers across all genres. This list offers a mix of WD favorites, reader-nominated sites, and some personal preferences from the editors. They all focus on one goal: Helping you improve your craft and get your work into reader’s hands.
You’ll see a few entries that require membership or a fee to use—they made it onto this list because the quality of their services makes that cost worthwhile. However, we try to keep budget in mind, so you’ll see quite a few websites that either have free-to-use features alongside their paid-for services or they offer their work without any fee attached. We want you to use this list to make the best choices for your writing career, regardless of your financial situation.
We’ve also included a new category: Specifically Self-Publishing! As more authors turn to indie publishing to retain control over their work and its distribution, we want to provide reliable resources for these authors.
Whether you’re a technophobe or technophile, we hope this list provides you with helpful tips and tricks to carry you forward in your writing career.
A means this is the website’s first appearance on the WD list. All listings within each category are alphabetically arranged.
1–4
CREATIVITY
1. Electric Literature
Beginning as a quarterly journal in 2009, Electric Literature grew to become a nonprofit digital journal in 2014. In addition to publishing essays, criticism, and literary news, Electric Lit also publishes two literary magazines: Recommended Reading for short stories and novel excerpts and The Commuter for flash fiction, poetry, and graphic narratives.
2. Fantasy Name Generators
What started as a simple name generator for fantastical people and places, this site has expanded exponentially. Now you can find random generators for everything from creature names to descriptions of weapons and settings to riddles, swear words, and calendars.
3. Inkarnate
Inkarnate is a map-making platform for writers to create regional maps to city layouts to battle maps. While there is a free version of the site, Pro subscribers will get access to incredible amounts of textures, stamps, and fonts, as well as allow users to upload custom art to use on their maps.
4. Literary Hub
Literary Hub is the place to go for inspiration and ideas about the cross-section of literature and contemporary culture. Featuring reviews of and excerpts from new books, criticism and theory of older works, plus author interviews, craft articles, and reading lists, your creative wheels will start turning.
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LIVE STREAMS, PODCASTS, YOUTUBE CHANNELS
5. Author Level Up
Michael La Ronn is responsible for the wealth of information on “Author Level Up.” If you have a question about indie publishing or about tools to help you write more efficiently, chances are he’ll have an answer for you.
6. Hello Future Me
Author Tim Hickson’s YouTube vlog focuses on various world-building and philosophical topics, including how to construct realistic class systems and handling mental illness in video game writing. He takes several wellknown book and television series and breaks them down to show writers how a story can be its most successful.
7. Lessons From the
