He stated that 6 requirements should be met:
1. Be able to be read in one sitting. Poe defined this as being from one-half hour to one or two hours.
2. Strive for unity of effect. Poe believed the aim of the short story was to create a mood, an ambience, or as he called it, an “effect.”
3. Begin with the first sentence. Poe insisted that the effect should be created from the very first line.
4. Have nothing in it that detracts from the design. The story should lead directly and inevitably to the conclusion without excess or digressive material.
5. Aim for truth. He believed that the story should remain true to the way people really act in a given situation, true to the human heart.
6. Stress imagination, invention, creation and originality.