Man on a Train: Short story or full-blown novel?

This blog was created as a way to get my ideas off of scraps of paper and into real things so that I can finish what it is I start out to do. Not having deadlines or reasons to work on projects has not given me much motivation to complete any of my ideas. This blog is my deadline and I'll see it everyday and remind myself that I do have ideas and that I should work on them. This is one of those cases. I have an idea for a short story about a man on a train. Setting is Eastern Europe, Russia, Siberia and the like. The man, a writer was once a modest success in the states but has spent near all his money and his ideas just don't come the way they used to. He's an older guy, 40 or so, he lived a grand life in his 20's and had to fight to maintain a lifestyle he was accustomed to in his 30's. He didn't have a lot of friends but he knew a lot of people. He never started a conversation without starting with the word "I". He was friendly but hard to get to know. He made a bet or a pact with himself to get on a train in China and ride it and others until he hit Portugal. Along the journey he would will himself to write a new novel and use the trip as inspiration and if he didn't finish a novel he'd kill himself. He set a pretty high bar for himself but thought if the threat of death didn't get his ideas flowing, he'd be no use anymore to the world. All he had to offer was his mind and creativity. Or did he? Along the way he discovers that he has more to offer the world than just another book. The trip brings out the humanity in him and he sees that finishing the book isn't the most important thing to him anymore. I don't want to give away too much in case someone other than me is reading this so stay tuned.