If you’re lucky, the impending holidays mean that you’ve got more time to write. So we’ve rounded up the top web resources for writers of all genres and persuasions.

If you’re stuck for a fact or lost for a word, you’re likely to find the answer on one of these nine sites. Some sites are not particularly well known, but all are extremely useful. And even if you don’t have a project on the go at the moment, they could provide the inspiration you need to kick-start a story.

So get ready to CTRL+D and add these to your Favorites. And if you know other sites that should be added to the list, drop us a line. We'll do an update in the future with readers' recommendations.

1. History By Decades
Need to add that extra layer of authenticity to your story? This remarkable website catalogues historical, social and cultural information by the decade, so you can find out who’s in, who’s out, who died, and who was wearing what – as far back as 1650. Riveting stuff from the excellent folks at Writer’s Dreamtools.

2. Visual Thesaurus
Lost for words? Here’s an online thesaurus and dictionary of over 145,000 words that you can explore using an interactive map. It's a tool for people who think visually. We bought the software version and it’s worth every cent.

3. Encyclopedia Mythica
The internet encyclopedia of mythology, folklore, and religion. The mythology section is divided to six geographical regions: Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe, Middle East, and Oceania. Each region has many clearly defined subdivisions that will ease your search, including Polynesia.

4. Snopes
The truth is here: urban legends, common fallacies, misinformation, old wives' tales, strange news stories, rumours, celebrity gossip, and similar items.

5. Crime Library
A rapidly growing collection of over 600 nonfiction feature stories on major crimes, criminals, trials, forensics and criminal profiling by prominent writers. The stories focus mostly on recent crimes, but an expanding collection also delves into historically notorious characters, dating back to the 1400s and spanning the globe.

6. The Smoking Gun
Exclusive documents - cool, confidential, quirky - that can't be found elsewhere on the web. Mostly material obtained from US government and law enforcement sources, via Freedom of Information requests, and from court files – but good inspiration for tales of misbehaviour.

7. Encyclopædia Britannica
The online version allows you to read concise articles for free, making it an invaluable jumping-off point for further research.

8. Bartleby
Named after the copyist character in Herman Melville’s classic short story Bartleby, the Scrivener, Bartleby publishes the classics of literature, nonfiction, and reference free of charge on the internet. It’s a staggering collection of reference, verse, fiction and non-fiction, from books of quotations to encyclopedias to Shakespeare to Gray’s Anatomy and even Strunk’s Elements of Style.

9. Epicurious
If you are what you eat, feed your characters here. Epicurious has more than 20,000 recipes from the premier magazines in food journalism, including Gourmet, Bon Appétit and Self - plus original material and tips focused on cooking, entertaining, and cocktails. And when you finish writing for the day, you’re likely to find something new to cook, too.

So, fix yourself a Christmas cocktail (LeafSalon recommends a Frozen Mango Martini), settle down at the keyboard, and let the wonderful world of the web inspire your writing.