[Barney]

The original thread title was;

Writing SF/F short stories - useful for novelists?

Quite surprising how opinions seem to be so polarised on this. Some people (me included) think it is useful. Others think short stories and novels are so different that experiencing of writing the former won't help much with the latter.

I am saying this from the perspective of someone who takes writing seriously, but hasn't been in the game for a long time. One thing I quickly realised was that my first attempts at story telling were flawed and actually quite boring. Writing several short stories in fairly quick succession helped my development. It gave me practice at telling a story from start to finish, and I learned a lot from it. If I had gone straight into writing a novel I don't think I would have learned as much as quickly. Rather than having a few short stories under my belt that (hopefully!) showed improvement from the earliest to the latest, I would just have one poor novel.
It seems others want to write a novel straight away, and I say you have to go with your instincts, it's just that mine were to start with shorter stuff.