I like to say I’m a master of the 250-word scene. The keyword there is scene, all you need for a scene is , a character (who), an action (what), or a setting (where/when). What’s missing? Two things: a plot and a resolution. Those two little detail changes everything, Yes, a scene might have a plot, but it’s not necessary. Here’s a quick example from a work in progress that shows what I mean:
She walked through darkness, weaving her way through... things.
No. Not things. Trees, a voice whispered in her head.
Where she was going, she did not know. Where she’d been, she did not know. All she knew was darkness. And cold.
And pain.
Pain. That was a word she’d known as long as she could remember. Her... feet? Her... head? Her... there were so many parts to her body it was hard to come up with all the words. There were so many words - so many names - that there was no way to keep track of them all. She thought she’d known them once in some previous life, but their meanings fled with the darkness.
She walked through darkness, cold buffeting her until a... a brightness grew in the distance, drawing her closer.
We’ve got a very basic setting – darkness, trees, cold – the hint of a fleshed out character – She, amnesia, hears voices, hurt – and some action – walking. In short, we’ve got who, what, where, and how. We’ve even got a plot – walking towards the light. What we’re missing is a resolution, not even an ambiguous one. An ambiguous resolution is where you’re left with unanswered questions and, while yes, this leaves the reader with plenty of unanswered questions, there’s just too many - Is this some isekai? Is she dying, and being drawn towards the light? Is she just really really injured?
Yes, the scene’s only 135 words, but it would take more than 200 words to reach a resolution. I’m at 1,000 words and no resolution in sight. But, when I turn things around and use it as the end, it becomes a wonderful ambiguous resolution to a great honking big battle scene. That’s the thing with ambiguous endings; the longer the story, the more ambiguous the ending can be.
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