Short is Hard

Except when it comes to blog posts. And this one will be very short indeed.

I've been struggling to write a short story for what must be a month now and it's just not working. Why can I write 5K of a novel in 2-3 days--easily--but a 5K short story takes AGES.

Okay, I do know at least some answers, but I'm not sure when I've felt this blocked. Aaargh.

In better news, I actually had a very short story (about 1,800 words) published in an high school textbook this month! How cool is that! And it was illustrated (not by me). That story took a while to write too, come to think of it. Although once I figured out I could write the story all in one scene, it came pretty easily (then it was about revising over and over and over). With this new one, I just don't have the structure figured out yet, and when I story's short... there's no room to drift about with structure.

I need to have an epiphany. Anyone know where to buy one?

Any short story tips? Any great online how-to articles? Clearly I'm more comfortable in novel form.