How to end a short story

I’ve been inundated by short stories lately. For a couple of years, I haven’t written a short story. I’ve been busy with my novels. Suddenly, short stories exploded in my brain. I wrote one story about a mother in a fantasy setting and sent it to Baen Fantasy Adventure Competition. It probably won’t win anything, but I had to try. If I get a rejection, and even if I don’t (ha!) I’m thinking about publishing a fantasy anthology about mothers. I wonder if many writers find the topic as fascinating as I do. Would I get many submissions to such a call?

I also have three more ideas for short stories. One – a flash – is almost ready to be written. It’s humorous in a fantasy milieu but without most fantasy trappings. Magic is only hinted at. It’s about food.

The second idea also takes place in a fantasy setting, vaguely Britain circa 18th century, and deals with two twin sisters separated at birth and then reunited by accident. This one is not ready to write. I know how it starts and I know the middle too, and the names of the characters, but I don’t know what the heroine wants in the end. She could pursue several mutually exclusive objectives in several different ways. I’m leaning toward humorous and romantic but I haven’t determined yet. It might be a retelling of Othello. Decisions, decisions…

And then there is the third story. I also know its beginning but not where it’s going. It’s my bane: not knowing the ending. Most of my short stories start this way, and it always takes time for me and my heroes to arrive at a conclusion.

This story’s subject has been done to death already – a soul transplant between bodies. Obviously speculative fiction. A few years ago, I wrote a scifi story on this theme, but this one is going to be modern fantasy. I don’t think the twist I’m thinking about has been done before, but how the heck does this story end? Maybe I should join Wattpad and ask the readers for help?

Do you write short stories? Flash? How do they develop in your mind? Do you know the endings at once? Or do the beginnings give you trouble?

This is a post for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group