Several things I’ve noticed about the writing I do and the dilemmas I face: (1) I tend to write many long descriptions—the descriptions are flavourful and colourful and get lots of praise, but my stories tend to be more mood/colour than anything else. All this seems to suggest I might be better at short stories, where settings can be introduced or less plot takes place.

Many T.V. series episodes have opening monologues and epilogues narrated by the author or main character, describing his/her experiences and giving some background or explaining the setting and what was going on. It seems better to do this with short stories than to keep breaking in with lengthy descriptions in a novel. But I could be wrong. Maybe descriptions can lace a novel well—I just find it hard to read if a lengthy novel is mostly descriptions and explanations.

I’ve always wanted to write thriller-type novels, but often I find myself with too much background material which might be better used as the subject of short stories rather than working it into a longer piece with an intricate plot and sub-plots.

The big question is, is a collection of short stories and mood/colour pieces as respectable as a longer piece?