He stated that 6 requirements should be met:
<span>1. Be able to be read in one sitting. Poe defined this as being from one-half hour to one or two hours.</span>
<span>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.”</span><span> </span>
<span>3. Begin with the first sentence. Poe insisted that the effect should be created from the very first line.</span>
<span>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.</span>
<span>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.</span>
<span>6. Stress imagination, invention, creation and originality. </span>
