Complete or not complete: that���s the question

A post for the Insecure Writer���s Support Group

Recently, I submitted a short story to a magazine, and it got rejected. No surprise there, it happens to every writer. What was a surprise was the reason for the rejection. The usual rejection is worded something like: ���Thank you for submitting your story to us. Unfortunately, that���s not what we are looking for at the moment.��� Instead, my rejection email stated that the editor liked the story but thought it was incomplete. ���Next time send a complete story,��� she said.

I was puzzled. I was sure it was complete. I didn���t try a cliffhanger. In the beginning of the story, I promised to deliver my heroine from point A to point B, and I did. Of course, she has to figure out where to go from point B, but that���s another story entirely. Or so I thought.

I asked some friends to read the story and comment whether or not it was complete. I was sure they would side with me and say that the story was complete. It didn���t happen. Everyone who read the story said: ���Yeah, interesting story, but I���d like to know more about the characters. Did they find xxxx? Did they reach yyyy? What happened next?���

Obviously, if several people say the story is not finished, it is not. I have to think up another ending. I must continue the story, and I have nothing against that. I know when happened to the characters next. But why didn���t I see it myself?

There is another quandary too. The story is long as it is, over 8000 words already. If I continue the way it deserves, it would stop being a short story. Should I try to make it a novella? Or should I just attach a slap-dash ending ��� another page or so ��� and call it ���done���?

Do other writers wrestle with such questions? Has it ever happened to you? How do you solve such problems? What constitutes an ending everyone agrees upon?