CW-Forward

OK, so during the nonfiction unit before we turned in our memoir, our teacher was talking about how important it is to keep the story moving forward (I guess this applies especially to short stories, more than longer ones). In a short story, you don't want to interrupt the action with details you don't need, or flashbacks, ex.
You want everything to be significant in some way. Every dettail should count. If a person has a vase in their living room, what does it reaveal about that person? You don't need to come out and say what the statue represents, but you've gotta give the hint.
And I think it was Mark Twain that said something about the difference between a good word and the perfect word. For example, is your character reading a book, or are they reading a novel? (That's the example my teacher gave).
And I thought I'd say what I've found most helpful in this class so far.
The setting assignment, and the dialogue assignment.
The setting one because it gets you thinking about really important details and the feel of the place.
And the dialogue because you can show so much through the dialogue. Why write that your character is impatient and hot-headed if your character can show us through his speech?
Try to show things with dialogue when possible, without going overboard. Like Shakespear wrote plays, so the dialogue needed to include things like "is that a blue gown with puff sleeves in the window of that shop?" (He never wrote that, FYI, I made it up). He needed to do that because it's a script, and there isn't written description of the setting, so the characters have to tell you. But if you're writing a story and not a play, you can describe the gown without having your characters say every detail to the reader.
Did that make any sense?