Sneaky Tricks To Create Micro-tension
I've mentioned before that literary writing tells stories about insignificant people doing uninteresting things--but in an interesting way. It shouldn't be thought that this means literary writing should be dull. Done well, it is not at all dull. It has to work hard to sparkle though, and those techniques are worth plundering even if you write in another genre. As I was re-reading Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri, I was struck anew by how she could weave an ordinary event into a riveting story. Take her short story, "A Question of Accommodations." [Spoiler Alert! You've been warned. You who read past this sentence are about to find out what happens!] Nothing much happens. A man and his wife attend the wedding of his old high school crush. And that's it. Seriously. "High Concept" it's not. Reading about this non-event should be as dull as paint drying...but not in the hands of Lahiri. She begins with a straightforward account of the coup...