SHORT OR LONG STORIES

Or maybe somewhere in the middle?
Like many writers, especially amateur ones like me, I've been honing my authoring skills by writing short stories. I chose to do this for many reasons:

• On the face it of it short stories seemed to be an 'easier' option. In reality this is so not true!
• I wanted to develop my characterisation and dialogue skills and I think short stories allow you to do this
• There are many different markets to target including competitions, anthologies not to mention the on-line opportunities. However, recently I get the feeling that this market, particularly for womag writing, is reducing
• I had the vague notion that if I could write a short story, I could apply those skills to writing a chapter of a larger piece of work. To date, the jury is still out on that one

I find writing short stories quite hard. By short story I mean up to 3000 words, which seems to be the average figure given though there are some guidelines which specify longer. For me a short story should be one that can be enjoyed in one sitting, whilst waiting for an appointment or a fairly short train/bus journey. 

I find it hard because I either overwrite, which means that by the time the word count is reached I've only just got into the tale, or I underwrite. The second is much easier to manage because it can usually be formed into a  piece of flash, with more opportunities to place.

Having said that I've actually had quite a good week in terms of short story success, not only did I discover one of my short stores had been shortlisted but I had an email from the Creative Cafe Project to say they would be publishing my submission 'no edits required' and a rather nice 'no' from an editor but inviting me to submit other pieces of work for her to see.

So I'm in a bit of a dilemma in terms of my planning, which I so wish I could just be cool about. Should I continue to struggle with developing complete short stories or spend more effort in letting the stories develop into longer pieces and be happy with the bits of flash in between? 

Decisions, Decisions....