Writer's Fallout Shelter

A short story should accomplish whatever the writer has set out for that story to accomplish, nothing more, nothing less. Some writers emphasize a change in the core personal beliefs of the main character as a key element of any successful short story. Other writers emphasize the consistent, logical progression from one "psychic space" to another, regardless of whether or not the psychic space in question exists inside the main character, inside a support character, in the setting of the story, or some place left undefined (such as in an unseen cosmos).

As a reader, the stories that have the greatest impact for me personally are always those stories where the main character either learns some important lesson or creates some broad, all-encompassing change in the world around them. If those two events occur together, then the story will stay with me weeks and months after I finish reading it.