First blog
Welcome to the website of the Prague Writers Group. The aim of this website, and the group originally, is to get writers to mix with one another. I have seen interviews with two very successful writers, Stephen King, author of books such as It and Carrie, and Aaron Sorkin, writer of the TV series "The West Wing", and remarkably both give EXACTLY the same advice: If you want to become a good writer, you need to read a lot and write a lot.
So I set up the writers group. And I will be honest, I had and still have purely selfish motives in mind when I did so. I want to improve as a writer, and I can't do that if the only people that ever read what I write are well-meaning sycophants who feel the need to praise me because I asked for an opinion. I know I am not a perfect writer, and people telling me that I am, while it does stroke my ego (stroke, stroke), will never help me to improve.
So I formed a writers group in order to get honest and constructive criticism and give honest appraisals of their work, and if they take what I say on board, even if I am wrong, I hope that it will help them. Writing, by its nature, is a very selfish art. It involves sitting in a room alone and doing your own thing. However, living in a bubble is stagnating and it's important to expand your horizons and see other points of view. While reading a lot and writing a lot are necessary to become a good writer, so is experiencing a lot of life.
Truthfully, I believe that the only way I can improve is to have people around me who push me, challenge me. That is what the Prague Writers Group was created for, and that is what I am always pushing for at meetings. Everybody helping each other to improve. The perfect world.