Degree of technology
of magic
of mystery
of injustice
of symbolism
of character realism (as opposed to being two dimensional)
of "preachiness" (as opposed to just being entertaining (is this a correct way to think?))
of hope
of withholding (same as mystery?)
common social norms versus uncommon? (uncommon is difficult to present...)
1st vs 3rd person and past vs present
humor?
one main character vs multiples

Plot is overcoming injustice, ultimately finding food/shelter/love. Not saving the world, that may seem to be a plot but it can't really be an ending.... But what of short stories? Overcoming injustice in a short story???

Need to write short stories first to gain confidence. As such i suppose I ought to read more of them. Rarely available on Kindle. Actually in general they just aren't as easy to find. Looking at Locus, etc now. I like short stories, just harder to find, thus haven't read as many............ Generally something is revealed. That's it.

For the long series: Low tech, medium magic, medium to high mystery, high injustice, low to nonexistent symbolism, main character highly realistic but others may have some simplification, relatively typical social norms, 1st person somewhat preferable, high degree of hope (to balance injustice), virtually no humor (since has high hope).

for the short story: Not sure.... that low tech matters here, all about the high mystery the revealing of which is the end of the story, not sure injustice level matters..., symbolism?? I don't know, highly realistic main character with possibly simplified others, social norms????, etc not sure. The short story is just something all together different.