Short-short story vs. novel

I mentioned that I am entering the Writer's Digest short-short story contest. In this case, the story can be no longer than 1,500 words. I've seen limits for these short-shorts be as low as 1,000 words, but I've never entered one before.

I've been writing on the short-short for about a week and I am at about 900 words. I write well more than that every night on my third and latest rejection project, otherwise known as a novel.

I'm no genius, but something tells me this is a clue that I've taken a wrong turn.

With the short-short I find myself agonizing over every word and, when I begin the night writing on it, I completely re-read it, honing it as I go.

It would make sense that I follow a similar procedure on the novel.

My novels aren't getting rejected because of my writing ability, or so I've been told, so perhaps this isn't absolutely necessary, but I'm sure my work would be substantially better if I worked at it the same way.

Or maybe not. I don't much like the short-short to this point and I'm not sure it will be the one that eventually gets turned in.

Surely a topic to think about as I write. I'm not in a race of time, I'm in a race of quality.

Yours in rejection,

Phil