I can't write short stories because I don't understand short stories. Half the time when I read published shorts I go 'huh' because I cannot see the _story_ in them - all I see is a vignette, a series of events that don't seem to have an arc. Other people obviously see them differently. I get a short story idea about once every five years, and if I 'try to generate one' all that happens is that I have soemthing that's cardboard all the way through - the characters don't come to life, the setting is flat, the plot is clicheed, I hate every word, and there is no STORY.

I wouldn't know a short story idea if it bit me on the bum, so trying to create them is pretty fraught from the start, and if I had one, I wouldn't know what to do with it.