Posted on 10.21.09

The Art of Writing: Profile with MB Content Developer Stacy Jones Sutton

by Stacy

Stacy scouts for technology news and trends, creates keyword-rich content and digital marketing for Mightybytes and its clients, as well as writes fiction. Her profile continues our support of the arts throughout October and conversations with the MB team.

Q: Tell me about what your personal artistic passion is?
Stacy: Writing and storytelling. I create content for a living, so I get to do what I love which is terrific. In my fiction writing, it is a constant struggle to sit down and do it. One of my favorite reminders is what Phillip Pullman said when someone in an audience asked him ‘Where his ideas come from?’ Pullman said, “I don’t know where they come from, but I know where they go. They go to my writing desk, and if I am not there, they go away.”

Q: How did you get involved with it?
Stacy: I have written poetry since I was a kid, which led to studying poetry in college and also screenwriting and filmmaking. For some reason I avoided writing short stories and novels (arguably still procrastinating in this area) until I had the joy of meeting Jill Pollack and becoming a student at StoryStudioChicago, where my most important writing to date was discovered I’d say. One of my favorite characters in my current novel I’m writing was born in a writing workshop at SSC. She is a blue fairy named Frost. An illustration of another character, Mudfoot, is included here. That’s by my illustration partner, Marcy Petricig Braasch. The novel is about what happens when fairy lights diminish amidst the chaos of a darkened human world.

Q: Tell us a little about your own creative process?
Stacy: Like many people, it starts with a blank page. A large, white, scary blank page that I stare at for a long time and drink coffee. Then, eventually, things begin to leak onto the page. If I am stuck, I go to hardcopy and write in a journal or notebook. Most of my inspiration is from dreams. I do a lot of dream study and therapy, plus some energy work in Reiki, so I start often with a poem conveying the image in a dream and go from there.

Q: What is next in your art ‘to-do’ list?
Stacy: Well, November is National Writing Month. I get daily prompts from Word’s Worth Writing Center by email and am going to make a date with the blank page, hopefully everyday in November. A new medium for my writing may be my words in wood. My brother is a woodturning artist and he has recently been commissioned to engrave words in some pieces, so I may do a bit of this with him creating custom poetry for an inscription on the piece for a wedding or special event. He and I have soul talks encouraging each other’s art. Check out his award-winning wood art.

Stacy: Here’s a question I am struggling with in my writing and would love some comments to help me out. What would a fairy become when they cease to exist?