What do you do when the writing doesn't come? or When is a rejection not a rejection?

I've had such a busy five weeks, I've lost the plot. Literally. The story I've been working on has been plotted at least to the last third but, because I haven't done anything with it for more than a month, I've forgotten how I intended it all to come together.

To combat that, I went over what I've already written, checked how it fits with the overall story arc, got to know my characters again and added to most of the scenes. I thought that would kick-start things again, but I reached the end of what I had, with an extra 5000 words, but no clear picture in my head for how to continue.

Then I had another rejection from a publishing house I've been wanting to get into for a long time. It wasn't a bad rejection, though. In fact, it was really positive. The editor said she liked my voice and elements of the story and invited me to send any future work directly to her. I'm a teeny bit excited about that.

Of course I have nothing suitable to send her straight away. There's the one I'm working on now, tentatively titled Shatternalia. I'm not convinced it'll be any more suitable for them than the previous one I sent, but I'll send it when it's done. What's the worst she can do? Say no and tell me not to bother her again, I guess. I'll just have to make sure my writing is good enough that the second part of that doesn't happen, at least.

I have another story that would be perfect for that publisher. It's finished but needs editing. The structure is sloppy and it has way too many point of view characters. While I've been waiting for Shatternalia to settle in my head again, I've done a scene map of this other story and have started preparing cards so I can analyse the structure and tighten it. I've already identifies several scenes that probably aren't necessary at all and a few others that can be written from another character's point of view to reduce the head hopping. I've also identified several really short scenes (less than 1000 words) that will need to be lengthened so that the head hopping doesn't happen too quickly.