The research for the novel is going too slowly, but it's given me some good ideas for the book. This sort of work has jump-started my creativity, and I've also had several ideas for short stories unrelated to the novel.

That's unusual for me. I was never much of short story writer, even when I briefly majored in creative writing at school. I started a story last week, but I've just been thrashing around it without real progress. I have realized that I don't know how to write a short story. To remedy that, I've decided to closely study a half dozen short stories. Now I need to decide which stories...