To Quote, or Not to Quote
Do we need dead people to validate our thoughts?
This article is inspired after I read Identify Your Fake Readers on Medium by S M Mamunur Rahman. He mentioned —
“God knows why Medium writers and readers love quotes. They cannot write a single article without any quotation from the great minds.”
I have been thinking about this quite a lot, mainly because I am stupefied at the number of quotations that writers use to support their stories. I do appreciate some quotations, of course.
I have just started my writing journey, so I try to pick one or two writing tips to experiment with when I write. That’s why when someone suggested, you must use quotes to reinforce your message. I thought it was a good idea.
Moreover, the other day I read an article with more than 20 quotes. And the writer also included lengthy narratives for each quote. It is like the encyclopedia of quotations. The writer has a great following.
So, I tried to give it a shot. I did the same — added many relevant quotations to my stories. But as expected, the outcome is the same — quote or no quote.
The number of views did not change. Instead, I have wasted so much time looking for the perfect quotations!
What I have realized about quotes
Here is what I have discovered about quotations and what little merits it brings to your story.
Most of the quotations we used are outdated
Most of the famous quotations from the ‘Great Minds’ are from people who fought in a revolution, won, and decided it was good to summarize their experience into long-winded sentences.
The situation in which these people lived is so different from today. The quotes were created in an era before electricity was even invented.
How many of your readers today lived like Napoléon? None in this decade. Is Socrates able to navigate a group chat with 200 members? No…I am willing to bet.
Your recent personal story, experiences, and even your failures are the most relevant to your readers. There is a good chance they have the same experiences.
I am convinced readers would prefer to hear from humans who are alive and walked at least a mile in their shoes.
Some are counterintuitive
If you are writing a piece about how much people hate advertisements, why would you want to use a quote from someone whose main job is to bring in advertising money?
It does not make sense. Readers are smart, curious people. They know stuff like this.
The quotation creates confusion in your message. It weakens the credibility of your story instead of reinforcing it.
Some quotes require you to decipher them to understand
See this quotation from Zen Master — “Meditation will not carry you to another world, but it will reveal the most profound and awesome dimensions of the world in which you already live.”
Try to be mindful. If readers are new to meditation, throwing in a quotation that seems so out of this world will not encourage them to act. It is a mouthful to say the words out loud.
One of our roles as a writer is to encourage readers to act or at least explore the content independently. The last thing you want is for them to hesitate and question your findings.
Some quotations are tagged as ‘UNKNOWN’
I believe no further explanation is needed. This speaks for itself. You try to validate your thoughts with someone’s quotes who is most likely a ghost.
What you should focus on instead of inserting quotations
Try not to use too many quotations in your writings. Make it yours by sharing your worldview and experiences.
Write from your personal experiences
As a reader, I crave the writer’s personal experiences. I look forward to tips or hacks that will make writing better. I look for inspiration from stories.
When I save a travel story where the writer tasks about traveling in Seoul, I know that I can use it in my current context. I could be planning a trip to Seoul and want to keep the article to refer to it later. It is current. The content of the story exists and can be easily applied. Plus, the fact that the writer lives in Seoul is evidence itself.
Your experiences are precious. They are your convictions to your story. Readers gravitate to personal stories which contain the unvarnished truth.
Why let a dead person’s quote outshine them? It makes no sense.
Let your creativity and uniqueness flow
Writing an article with one unique voice provides clarity for your message. The story starts with you and continues with you till the end. It flows seamlessly to allow your readers to bond with you.
Quotes added after every paragraph is like switching TV channels every 2 seconds. Readers do not need to be put into a maze to navigate back to the original intent.
You must work hard to find your voice. It comes from a lot of trial and error. It takes courage to put out a raw, raspy voice. But your readers follow you because they like how you address your points. They can relate to what you say.
Skip the quote and let that uniqueness and creativity of yours be the main star of your story.
If you must use quotes, be extremely selective
Perhaps for some specific content, a quotation will enhance the story’s credibility or when a topic is too complicated. Even then, I think using researched data would give the story better credibility.
But if you must use a quotation, use it at the top/bottom of your story as an anchor. And remember to at least use quotations that are relevant to the context. Weave them into your text or amend them to sound closer to you.
As a reader/writer in Medium, there are plenty of good articles that do not use quotes in stories. Most of the writers have shared their own experiences into phrases using their own words. These phrases are not jarring, but instead, they are tuck snugly inside the story.
To conclude
Focus on what you want to say and share it with authenticity, and creativity. It doesn’t matter if it goes with other great mind’s thoughts or not.
Good writers know they do not need quotations to support or validate their stories. So, let your voice and story be heard as they should be.
Express yourself.
Don’t let a quote steal your limelight.
Thank you for reading.
If you are interested to read more of my writings, you may read the following one.
