One of the important literary aspects of short stories is concision, which forces an author to focus closely on a small moment, event or period of time. While a novel generally stretches across many different scenes, points of view and even characters, a short story forces a writer to focus, meaning that universal issues have to be addressed using a smaller scale. This can create more of a punch and immediate impact on the reader than a long novel. An example of a story that has a surprising punch is the Kate Chopin short story "A Story of an Hour," which takes place completely inside the mind of a character over the course of an hour. Because this story is so concise, the reader feels a stronger impact at the ending.
Short stories can allow authors to be creative and try different methods of form or structure. Since writing a novel is a lengthy process, experimenting with short stories can be a way to play with narrative that does not contain the risk of experimenting with novel form. While many short stories stick closely to the traditional structure of rising action, climax and falling action, some short stories take form beyond these bounds. For example, Robert Coover's famous short story "The Babysitter" fragments a simple story, creating a complex view of a single event.
In addition to playing with form, short stories have also allowed writers to experiment with language, typography, point of view and subject matter. Experimental writers such as John Barth in his short story collection "Lost in the Funhouse" and Donald Barthelme's collection "40 Stories" both have experimented not only with form, but also language, appearance, and point of view in a story.
The short story as a literary form provides readers with an enormous range of subject matter, experiences and methods of writing. While novels are also wide-ranging in subject and purpose, they cannot provide as much variety in such a short space as short stories can. Short stories, because of their length, provide authors with flexibility.