This piece originally appeared in the digital publication Authors Magazine. When I was a young girl, I had this impression that an author was a lonely figure sitting behind a mahogany desk, tapping away at a typewriter while a dark and stormy night brewed outside the window (thanks Snoopy). Imagine my surprise when I realised that that archetype is as dead as the typewriter. It’s true that writing is still a solitary profession, but the advent of the internet has ensured that it need no longer be a lonesome one. Online writing communities have been around since the days of dial-up modems, and as the internet has become more social,…