8 Essential Attributes of a short story / Joy Williams

1) There should be a clean clear surface with much disturbance below 

2) An anagogical level

3) Sentences that can stand strikingly alone

4) An animal within to give its blessing

5) Interior voices which are or become wildly erratically exterior 

6) Control throughout is absolutely necessary

7) The story's effect should transcend the naturalness and accessibility of its situation and language 

8) A certain coldness is required in execution. It is not a form that gives itself to consolation but if consolation is offered it should come from an unexpected quarter. 

A novel wants to befriend you, a short story almost never.

via  The Vice