What do I do when I can’t think of what to write in one story?
Plan a completely different project, clearly. It started a couple of days ago after stumbling across the website of a book I’ve been meaning to read and finding out that the submission period for the second volume was open. About half an hour later I had filled up two pieces of scratch paper with possible ideas. Some of them–heck, most of them–won’t be used, but that’s okay because The Idea came out of those scribblings, and it has gotten refined since then through long walks and more brainstorming. This means I should start writing the thing and finish reading the book to make sure my major theme hasn’t already been covered.
At least this one doesn’t have a maximum word count limit, though novellas are discouraged. This one doesn’t have enough oomph to be a novel, so I have that going for me. Maybe I can write short stories after all.