Thursday, May 16, 2013

TTS Pts. 4+5 reading response (week 7)

One of the pieces I found most useful in this section of Telling True Stories was the section by Kelley Benham on using quotes and capturing dialogue.  This was one of the biggest things I had trouble doing in my first and second drafts and it was helpful to read what her advice.  I definitely want to use some of her techniques when I interview Mel again and in future pieces.

During my first interview with Mel I was SO focused on finding "the story" that I totally missed a ton of dialogue and good quotes.  We were in and out and everywhere so I didn't end up using a recording device either, so now I have very few quotes to work with until I meet her again.  I just hope that the quotes I get are organic and not manufactured from my questioning, so I'm trying not to go in there with only the objective of getting some usable quotes.

I like the idea of capturing seemingly unimportant moments and using that dialogue or voice to develop the character.  I think the little piece on Elizabeth Edwards was really brilliant and brought a new side of her forward.  None of our subjects is so famous that we have to worry about being redundant, but I think that capturing dialogue with other people is definitely something I'd like to try and incorporate in my piece.

There were a lot of other really good parts to these two sections, but this is what stuck with me the most throughout because it applied to something I've been struggling with in my piece.  What are your methods for picking/getting good quotes?  Do you think it's more important to pay attention to the big picture or smaller details when reporting for a story?

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