Writer's dilemma: Is writing a collection of short stories as good as writing a novel?

Personally I don’t enjoy books of short stories, I like thick books I can get invested in.

Yes. I believe the same amount of effort is put forth. Ray Bradbury was a guy who wrote a story a day his entire life. He had well over 1000 stories. Quite a few of his short ones were probably popular than some of his novels.

The main question when you are worried about the length of stories is this: Did you say what you need to say? If you feel you’ve said everything that needs to be said, it doesn’t matter the length. You, as the author have told what you wanted, and don’t have anything more to say.

I judge authors by the quality of their short stories. Writing good short stories is tough.

More money is on the long-form side of the business.

I prefer short stories, but 99% of the time, after I’ve finished, I wished they were longer.
Going into the writing business is hard and you have to have thick skin.
I’d start off on websites to share and get feedback. Wattpad is what I use to share my stories.

You are facing a common writer’s trap to include too many things in one work. It would work if you know what you are doing with all the materials, but too much details more often leaves reader confused and derail the story.

Personally I don’t like my novel or short story to have so many details that don’t affect the story in the long run. A detective is finding a murderer, who cares where or when he was born, what his parents look like or how many dogs he owned? Unfortunately there are many authors who attempt to do that, and they usually bore me to death.

TV series can get away with it because they put their information aside for further development in future episodes. You can also do it if you also try to make a series. But if you decide your work to be a one-shot then you can fall into the trap easily. Even more so when you write a novel.

So what to do? I stick to the old trick: write the ending first. From the ending, you will see exactly what direction the story should head for and plan your information accordingly. You will know which information to include and which to omit. The key is to know what information is truly essential to the story. No matter how emotional you are to your story, you shouldn’t give people too much information about it.

From a newbie who is trying to write something.

Sure. Short stories can be world-class literature. So I’d suggest you write what you’re best at. Short stories involve a lot less writing than novels, less investment of time per project, are easier to get people to read them, and in general will be much easier to write well than novels for most people.

Looking at it from the point of view of a songwriter/composer.

I don’t think it takes any less skill to write a short complete work than it does a longer one. what is important is that the characters are fully developed (or as fully developed as required by the story) and that the story is complete. One of the most difficult things I’ve learned is to recognize when the story being told is complete.

I think it is important to have considered as many details about the characters, place and time as one can. While all of this information is not necessary for the reader of either short or long stories, it helps the author establish reality. As an actor, I have often needed to invent a back-story for the character I am to portray (the script seldom does this) allowing a more natural performance.

My writings generally are short stories or essays. Perhaps because I find dialogue difficult, I tend to use first person narratives with a lot of descriptive content that (I hope) provides the reader a sense of the person, place and time. Early drafts usually receive considerable pruning and rearranging before I quit; I never feel that it’s finished. Rather than providing too much information about the who or what or when, I try to weave the descriptions.

I hope this has been helpful.

I write very good descriptions of places and times and backgrounds—very good literature in its own right—but it goes on and on FOREVER. Most people COULD delve into these luscious descriptions of settings and sense of place and enjoy it immensely, but sooner or later it comes up that there is no story there.

Ask yourself this: what is the story about? If you don’t have any idea what you are writing then you will get lost in the forest of description.