The Power of Words. What do you do when you have too many quotes?

12/31/97
What do you do when
you have too many quotes?

      Here's another problem: You have too many good quotes. What do you do?
       Paraphrase.
       Use dialogue, forget paraphrase.
       Sometimes just a list of quotes with bullets can serve to show the range of emotion or opinions. You can do this in the body of a story or as a sidebar. But skip the prose. "Here's what others said:'' and get to the meat.
       Offer one of the quotes to the photographer or copy editor writing the caption. The quotes don't all have to be in the story and a good quote can make for a more interesting caption.
       Quotes are worth using if they are powerful and reflect the style and speech of the person you are writing about. But a story that is nothing but strings of quotes is dictation, not writing. You do have some leeway. If someone is telling a tale in his own rhythm and speech, that's a good place for lengthy quotes if they are strong. Even with good quotes, a writer must remember to WRITE the story: to set it up, to include scenes and physical description. Too many good quotes can be as bad as no good quotes. Discretion.

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