In my earlier stuff, I didn't really mix angst and humor all that well. So it was either incredible angst driven or not. Which really bogged me down. So I decided with Roommates to be a bit more... romantic-comedy. Now when I write, I find that I enjoy writing angst-lite more than the drama/angst heavy scenes.
Length isn't something I think a lot on. It does seem though that my lighter stories are shorter. Roommates wasn't a story I didn't do a lot of planning on. I more or less wanted to escape from, "Are You Christian," for awhile and I believe I just started writing, "Roommates," and didn't stop. I believe it ended easier than anything else I've written. It certainly felt easier anyway.
Mostly my characters are like people you can visualize walking down the street. They're not too outlandish or complicated. When I pick a main character type, I want to surround them with people of varying differences in personality. With Roommates, I wanted eccentric yet strict parents that seem a bit out of touch with the 'common' people around them. Will I wanted to be this up tight and oblivious person that needed a good dose of self-reflection.
Brett I wanted to just be careless. Not to the point of it being a major flaw, but different.
I think as long as you think outside of what is "cookie cutter" with anything you can make them an individual. Brett is a care free, can't hold a job down, fly by the seat of his pants.. sort of person. That has been done over and over again.. but I hope I added something to him that brought him more to life than just that.
I write about people around my age... when I wrote Something Unexpected and my earlier works I was in high school myself.. still learning how to write and all that. Now I'm focusing more on young adults. The next two stories I have in the works are about people around my age. In college or just out of it. It is a fun transition time for people and a lot can happen.