On the difference between short stories and novels
What I learned as the short story evolved is this: The dogma says “one idea per story”. To my mind it is not, it is one theme per story, one statement per story. As many ideas can go in as will fit – and the story is just packed with them – but there has to be a unifying theme. All the little dipoles must line up. The novel allows scatter, allows dipoles to be arranged in all orientations; the short story doesn’t.

So back to drawing board – or at least, to Archive CD Rom. Pull out several short stories which never quite worked. Decide on one unifying theme. Let the dipoles align.