Every day, as a writer, I get up and get online and check out different things –blogs, news, email, etc…  I spend a good amount of time on the computer every day. On the days I’m lucky enough to actually write, it never fails that I visit each one of these five sites.

1) Dictionary.com

Along with this site comes thesaurus.com. A writer’s best friend. Whether I’m working on my novel, a short story, or an article, this site is invaluable to me. You’re all smart; no explanation needed, right?!

2) Webmonkey.com

This site is an HTML cheatsheet. Of course a writer wouldn’t need this for a story or novel, but every writer should have it bookmarked and use it. Why? Because every writer should have a blog. I’ve preached about platforms before, so I won’t prattle on here.
Blog owners need to know how to do links and font sizes and colors and such to make their posts more appealing to the reader’s eye. Webmonkey is only one of many sites that has a page of these cheats.

3) Flogging the Quill

This may be another one that you’re asking, ‘why?’ about. Well, it’s because Ray points out the obvious about the work people send in to him. And he’s nice about it. Other writers weigh in as well.
New posts are put up only three times a week, but blog readers visit daily. There is always something new to learn about editing, revising, and what readers want. This site helps teach us what works and what doesn’t in our own writing.

4) Twitter

Yup. That’s right. Twitter. Reason being, all of the people I follow are either writers/authors, agents, editors, or publishers. I get some great advice and tweet about what I’m up to and it lights a fire—gives me drive. Every time I used to get on Twitter, I ended up writing more than days I didn’t. So now, I visit the site daily. The “#” searches are great and I’ve solved many a problem just by chatting.

5. News site of your own choosing.

I have my own preference, but I don’t want this to get political. The news site is my homepage on my phone and I always visit it for a reality check. Get out of my own head for a bit. Writing is my world, but there is another world out there… Plus, one can gather many ideas from the news — art imitates life, right? Or is that the other way around?

Anyway, there you have it. Those are the sites I look at daily, and I think you should, as well. Are there others that you’d like to add to the list??

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Since winning her first writing competition at a young age, Eden Tyler, has only fallen more in love with the written word. She uses her English, Psychology, and Sociology backgrounds to create depth to her own stories and novels while contributing to and running websites about writing. This is what fulfills her, along with working as Co-Editor for Fuel Your Writing, but she also enjoys the freelance work that puts food on the table (and that ever-essential roof overhead) for her family.

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