In-Depth at the Isle: @Vitkolesnik

Message in a Bottle #14
Origin: The Isle of Write
Sender: @jrhughes
Recipients: Steemit Creatives

In-Depth at the Isle: @Vitkolesnik

With over 300 members now, it's hard to believe that our first open invitation to the Steemit Creative Community went out less than a month ago! It's so exciting to be part of a group where the warmth is not limited to the sunshine.

You may recall in our initial post that we told the tale of our arrival at the Isle, and how we began to grow, including the lovely and seemingly serendipitous landing of @Vitkolesnik:

“Would you be interested in hearing about my plans for teacherless writing groups focusing on the emotional impact of stories more than the technical execution?” shouted @vitkolesnik from the seat of a garvey. By this time we were tipsy on tequila and drunk on friendship and we giddily dragged him ashore where he works happily to bring his vision for an impact feedback group to Steemit and beyond.

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Vit was one of our very first guests, and soon we found him to be a fixture at the Isle. You may be wondering why his joining us seemed "serendipitous." Let me explain:

One of the foundational goals of the Isle is to offer a place of support and community for creatives at whatever stage they were executing their craft. There are plenty of workshops that will tear an artist down, but we wanted to build them up. Not only by offering a relaxed atmosphere free of the politics and hierarchy of many groups, but by bringing a different style of feedback into our critique process. And we had hardly settled when Vit showed up with his fantastic ideas for what has become the Impact Feedback group, which is geared toward exactly the kinder, gentler feedback approach we hoped for!

His vision is based on the work of Peter Elbow, Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and author of--among other works--Writing Without Teachers. The specifics are described more fully in his post, A Teacherless Writing Group: Why It’s Needed and How It Works, where he says, in part:

A teacherless writing group is a place where people share their writing and give each other authentic, constructive feedback on how the author’s words were actually experienced: sort of like movies happening inside your mind as you’re reading. It’s important to note that this is not about offering advice on what to improve in a text. In fact, advice helps in a very limited way, as everyone has unique personal histories, values, and modes of expression.

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I had the chance to talk at length with him about this initiative and would like to share some of the background that has led to such a generous soul and his much-needed work for the Steemit Creative Community.

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Interview

JR: What personally or professionally (or both) brought you to Steemit?

V: I like to belong to a global community and to contribute to it as a blogger/writer/poet, designer/developer, and a wisdom seeker.

(At this point I remember that he and his lovely wife have eight beautiful children, and I feel chagrined that I struggle to post and also make time for my three.)

JR: Do you remember a particular event or need that brought you to Peter Elbow's work?

V: I was blogging and writing for many years and stumbled upon his work in 2008. At the time I was writing too slowly to keep pace with my blogging needs. I was also often writing too rationally and wanted to be more spontaneous. I had been writing well since my school days, so it wasn't the need to improve the results, but rather the process.

JR: And what drew you to Elbow in particular?

V: His approach based on freewriting, a liberating technique helping the writer to connect with her/his inner voice, to be free and authentic.

I was into the personal development theme at the time, so I included some of Elbow's exercises in my online workshops on blogging (I have a popular blog in Russian language with then about 10,000 subscribers).

(Now (then) I'm clicking back and forth between Discord and Vit's old intros to Steemit, discovering that this Russian hailing from the Czech Republic is also (some of) the brains behind SteemFilter, a wonderful search tool for Steemit content, and I'm again eyeing my dusty blog, recommitting to post every day.)

JR: So the Impact Feedback then, this is not something you are just conveying that someone else already designed...this is something you have designed yourself, inspired by certain philosophies and advice from the work of others, is that correct?

V: I've adapted the approach of Peter Elbow and combined it with other lines of thought which are important to me: the idea and practice of nonviolent communication and the language of needs by Marshall Rosenberg and the techniques by Thomas Gordon helping to learn how to speak to be heard.

My interest in those two latter authors came from my family needs as our children were growing and we needed to find a language to speak to them without aggression or violence.

(We wander off on parenting stories and comparisons of the cultural influences American and Russian tradition have on the pressure to raise children in a certain way...how that affects the adults we become, and I find myself even more enamored of this sweet and giving person who graces our Isle. But alas, attention spans are limited, so I move on to the wrap up.)

JR: So tell me who you hope this group will help and what you hope a participant will take away from it. Take your time, I won't type over you (smiley face).

V: I hope it will help writers and bloggers who want to know what the readers actually feel or think when reading their work, who want to connect better to the worlds of others and to know themselves better in this way. Who want to write with more ease or who suffer from over-editing.

Writing can be a way to connect to their inner selves and to others on the level where things manifest themselves easily and truthfully. I want people to enjoy writing. I think that's needed here on Steemit, as one is expected to write a lot and can feel pressured if there's no positive feedback, which often happens with new Steemians.

Otherwise, if there's no enjoyment of writing and only a money motivation to get rich fast, it can't last for long. So it's in our best interest to write well and get pleasure from it. This means we need to know ourselves and our readers, to stay in touch both with our own inner world and with the worlds of our readers. To be unique and personal is the way to connect to universal truths and to be understood by others.

There is a whole other dimension for non-native English speakers. It's especially hard to write in English because of the fear you will be incorrect or use wrong language. Which of course is unavoidable.

I've been dreaming about blogging in English for ten years and during this time started about five blogs with no success. It was just too difficult to write, too painstaking to edit, and too hard to continue without any feedback. With Steemit, it went differently because of the community support and also thanks to my freewriting practice and the overall accumulated experience of writing.

The group is a way to support these authors, to give resources needed, because Steemit is the environment where it can be done.

JR: If I could ask one final question, when you say Steemit is the environment where it can be done, what do you feel makes Steemit that environment?

V: My second post was exactly about that. I am aware of greed and the gold rush and all the wrong things happening here. It is not as rosy as I thought then. But still, the fact that we are having this talk... it would be impossible without Steemit connecting us in the first place. I could write for years without anybody noticing. Steemit connects people who want to help. Your project is proof of it.

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As always, @vitkolesnik is magnanimous to the end.

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We extend many thanks to Vit for his time and his presence as a part of the fabric of the Isle. If you feel you could benefit from his initiative, either as a writer or as a giver of feedback, you can learn details and apply to join here. Or swing by the Isle discord server and give @vitkolesnik a shout!

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See what else the Isle is up to:
Isle of Write Curation Announcement!
Isle of Write Poetry Publication Week 2 Roundup
Community, Contest, and Curation, Oh my!
Conversations with Authors - Yahia Lababidi

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