W.G. Sebald's Writing Tips

That, and quite a few of these tips, really, comes across as a bit cryptic —he says the same thing about the present tense — but I suppose that exaggeration is one of the main engines of satire. I don't think that means it's out of place in good prose writing (or poetry, for that matter), but it probably is something one should be careful with — it's hard to know when excessive detail will pass over that fine line between perceptive insight and the absurd. Then again, sometimes the silliness of exaggeration adds to the effect — as in the majority of David Foster Wallace's stuff. I really take his take on setting to heart: 'A sense of place distinguishes a piece of writing. It may be a distillation of different places, but there must be a very good reason for not describing place.'