When I set down the proverbial pen for too long, it can be hard to get any momentum. Everything feels difficult to write. This is not to say that I think short stories should be easy. Far from it. In short form narrative, as a writer, there's so little time to establish anything.

When Nano came last year, Noveling November, I think was the name they gave it, I wrote, as I always write. I expect I will again, whether the new event continues or not. But that's the struggle. Because Nano was focused and productive for me... but it was not, was never, my only writing.

I wrote something interesting last year and hit my word count. And I never finished it. And perhaps I will, as it is interesting. Not finishing a novel I start during Nano, whatever name the month's events are given, is not itself surprising. But that it becomes the only writing I'm doing? That is alarming.

Last year I toyed with weekly flash fiction based on prompts. Perhaps I should have continued that, because it kept my mind sharp. Short fiction. Required words. An exercise for the mind, always. And I say that perhaps I should have continued it because after nano last year I've written only one brief piece of flash fiction. Exactly 500 words, based on a location prompt built from the Deck of Worlds.

Don't get me wrong. It was an interesting prompt. An interesting little story, solving the lack of known with piles of questions. I had hoped, at the time, that it would get me writing again. But it was over two months ago now, and it did not. 

July was a Camp Nano month. A time for shorter projects. So that's what I'm going to do. A shorter project. But I am struggling. I need a place to start and where once I had too many, now my mind is full of fog.

We'll see how this goes.