When you think back the first groups you joined were probably organized sports. In school I joined a softball team in middle school and then the cheerleading team in high school.

Now I’m in two writing groups, the creative writing club at SNHU and a writing group on TikTok. I’m in both for the same reason. Writing a book is mostly done alone, and I wanted people who understood that.

Orkut shows why members are the backbone in the communities.

Google launches Orkut in 2004, a social networking platform built around communities. Users find communities by searching keywords or browsing other people’s memberships, then join groups for their schools, workplaces, and even their streets. The groups are how they find classmates and friends. The users build Orkut by creating the groups, joining them, and rating each other.

Orkut doesn’t last long. Users start running into blocked features, a cap on how many friends they can have, and trouble loading and sharing photos. When the platform stops meeting their needs, they move to platforms that do. When Google announces it’s shutting Orkut down, it says Orkut communities started conversations and forged connections that never existed before, and it promises to keep an archive of the public communities. The website goes away, but the connections between the members are what people remember.

The road to publication is lonely.

Those connections matter even more to a writer. You write alone, edit alone, and wait alone. In my groups, I see other writers going through the same struggles, and that tells me I’m not alone. If you’re stuck on a plot hole, you can use your people as a sounding board and talk things out with them. Sometimes talking out the problem can help open new streams of creativity, and you come up with something you’ve never thought of. With a group or a critique partner, you don’t walk the road alone. Author Annie Rains says being an author is less lonely when you have partners to support you. Another writer describes how joining a writing community helped ward off loneliness.

A community gives a writer the same thing, a way to find people who understand what you’re going through. That’s the kind of community I want to build on Instagram, a platform that supports others going through the same thing I am and shows that if you work really hard at something, you can make your dreams come true.

Do you have a writing group?

Orkut is gone, but its users showed what a community needs, members who build it together. Writing can feel lonely, but it doesn’t have to. Tell me about your group or critique partner and what they do for you. If you don’t have one yet, maybe this is the week to find yours.