Creativity and Resolutions

Hi everyone! My name is Jennifer Galasso. I'm a YA writer and fantasy artist/illustrator who pens mostly Gothic and horror fiction with a touch of magic and the supernatural. I live in Rhode Island with my husband, Richard, and fourteen-year-old daughter, Samantha, and am SO excited to be a new blog contributor in 2017. What a way to start the year!

Most of us will agree, 2016 was a difficult year for many reasons. Despite the horrors of the previous twelve months, most try to stay optimistic and set goals to make improvements personally and professionally. Some common resolutions: eat healthier, write two novels, get more sleep, start a workout routine, sell a million books and leave the crappy day job, etc.

One of my resolutions this year was to become more involved in a writing community. As most writers know, art in any form—especially writing—can be very isolating. I tend to shut myself away just to get work done. But it’s also important to interact, especially with other writers. Rejection is a big part of the craft and it helps to have support and people who understand your pain who are more than happy to applaud your victories, and who you can cheer on through career highs and lows, as well.

Within a couple days of making my resolution, I saw Sharon’s post about becoming a YAtopia blog contributor on my Twitter feed. Oddly enough, I had just been thinking about Sharon and how I hadn’t seen many Twitter posts from her lately. Seeing her post that day seemed like divine intervention, fate, destiny … in a nutshell, meant to be.

Ironically, a few years ago I made a similar promise to break out of my hermit tendencies and get more active on Twitter. The first step was entering pitch contests, and Sharon was the host of one of the first ones I entered! She taught me that putting myself, and my work, out into the world wasn’t so scary and that there are MANY supportive people in the writing community. She was right and I have never forgotten her for that.

Even more than fate, the key, I think, is opening up to possibility, and in doing so many amazing opportunities arise. The same goes for creativity. A lot of people ask artists and writers where they get their inspiration and we all know what a hard question that is to answer. I don’t think it matters where we get inspiration, just that we open our minds to the possibility of becoming inspired. It’s like shutting off your cell phone—people may try to reach you, but you won’t get any of the calls! The same goes for creativity. Sometimes you have to shout at your muse to wake the heck up and then take whatever small idea you get and cultivate it into something … anything! (Even if it sucks.)

So again, thanks to Sharon who, like my first pitch contest, gave me this amazing opportunity, and thank you to all who helped build YAtopia into a fantastic blog and awesome writer’s community—I’m so excited to be here! Here’s to 2017 being a year to inspire and grow and cheers to resolutions—hoping you achieve ALL your dreams and goals!