I feel so goddamn depressed right now and I'm wondering if anyone has some advice...I sent a short story collection to an agent whom I've been courting for almost three years, and she loved it and told me that she thinks she will be able to sell it if I can also give her a novel. From her enthusiasm, I am almost sure that she wants to represent me...as long as there's a second book. So, since hearing from her, I've been fumbling around with all my material, all my novel starts, and I have tentatively arrived at a frustrating realization: I don't think I want to write a novel! I find short fiction--especially novellas and short story cycles--so much more exciting, so much more fun to write, and I hate that such projects are completely unmarketable without a novel in tow. I'm so close to representation with a reputable New York agency and I am starting to doubt it will happen because I don't know if I can provide what she wants. I've thought about trying small presses, but it's just not the same. I've always want to be published nationally, and this agent has always been so supportive of me for years, so I really want to make it work with her. I'm playing around with merging some of my shorter pieces--two short stories, a finished novella, and an abandoned novel start--into a cohesive book, but it feels contrived to me; I think I'm making the stories weaker by trying to combine them, and she also urged me against doing it, so I don't know what I'm even thinking. I was so happy when I first heard back from her because she was so excited about my book, but now I feel hopeless. I told her I'd look over my projects and get back to her in a few months about which I want to pursue as a novel...but I'm worried that those two months will pass and I'll still have nothing because I've never had success with longer works.