: Re: Do Short Stories Need Definitive Endings? I'm looking to create a few short stories that are in a shared universe of sorts and I'm curious whether or not I need to have a definitive ending

Some of my favourite short stories have no definitive ending

Most of them are in Dubliners by James Joyce. They typically don't really have a start either, and consist of a window of time in the protagonists' lives in which something changes; be it a progression from social climber to social disaster, or from innocence to a greater understanding of one's true identity.

My very favourite is An Encounter (this link is to a synopsis that I would recommend not reading if you ever intend to read the short story itself).
The ending (of the 'story' as written) is very much a beginning to a more complex and difficult period of life, the content of which we are left to imagine for ourselves.

The full text of The Encounter is here.

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: Re: Do Short Stories Need Definitive Endings? I'm looking to create a few short stories that are in a shared universe of sorts and I'm curious whether or not I need to have a definitive ending

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: Difference in writing style for first person I have done a little research on the different points of view, and want to delve further into the ways in which the execution of a story varies

: Screenplay vs Novel Now I know, that this question could be tagged too broad or opinion based, and that it might even be closed down. But I have been struggling over this for quite some time

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