Oh, my. What an observation!

[elfs]

"If you can only write short stories but want to write a novel, write a Cast of Thousands: The more characters you follow, the less you have to write. A typical novel is perhaps 120K words long. If your cast has fifty people in it, each book need only have 2,400 words for each." -- James Nicoll, commenting on Harry Turtledove.

Comments

[leethomps.livejournal.com]

Or you can go the Tolkien route and do both :)