Straight from the horse's mouth

I wrote a blog post for my day job last week, and it got me thinking, so here is that thought:

Is there anything quite so powerful as words direct from the source? For National Volunteering Week, I asked our regular volunteers at Whitlingham Country Park what they enjoyed and valued about their time in nature, and they had some beautiful things to say.

This horse looks like it has plenty to say!

The power of real quote

A quote can be a real gem to add power to the rest of a text, however, I was certainly conscious that the blog post was pretty full of them. I questioned myself, asking "Is this too quotey?" several times when writing and editing.

But the truth is, when the subject is volunteering, and we have over twenty regular volunteers, how do you not make it full of quotes?  They’re the ones who truly own the experience. Their insights, their words. They’re the heart of it all.

Yes, I could have paraphrased their responses, but it just didn't seem right to edit their passion down for the sake of what is deemed to fit with the "rules". So I decided to break a few and let the quotes speak for themselves.

You can read my volunteering week blog post here:

Shout out to our Volunteers 📣

When quotes lose their power

I understand that quotes are carefully selected, powerful little gems to slot in at just the right moment, so do they lose their impact if there are too many? And how many would be too many? Given the way the world of writing is going these days, are there even any rules left that particularly matter?

The response has been great, with over 100 people having read the article, or at least clicked on it, so that tells me it must have done its job!

What can be more powerful than the truth, straight from the horse's mouth, about something that matters to them? In a world of fake news, mis-reporting and exaggeration, straightforward truth is probably much rarer than we think. In the world of social media and reporting, I am determined to forge forward with truth and transparency.

Do you feel the same? Send me a message and we can get started with sincerity on a project that matters to you, starting with the truth.