In the first drafts of the story, I also had problems with conflict resolution. I wasn't sure how I could wrap up the story and attain my goal of a happy ending. I knew from the start I wanted the asshole stepdad to die.
In the first version of the story, the stepdad dies from alcohol poisoning. That's why he doesn't catch Jack as he makes his escape from the closet. In the end, Jack sneaks out of the girl's house and returns home in the moring to find the stepdad dead on the couch. In this version, Jack also has very specific memories of his mother, who has taken on a sort of perfect angel quality in his mind.
This version was problematic for many reasons. Why does Jack return home in the first place? Why does he leave the safety of his angel's home? Why would such a wonderful mother marry such an asshole? Where was the conflict resolution?
I couldn't answer these questions myself, so it was back to the drawing board. It took me almost a month and several rewrites to find a formula I liked. The result is one of my favorite, and perhaps my best, works.
The story is based on a dream I had about a year ago. In the dream, I met a rather attractive young women who was a vampire. The strange thing was, she was looking to destroy other vampires.
I thought this idea would make a great short story, even if it wasn't very original. I set to work on it, trying to develop a sort of weird cast of characters and working on making the story stand out from other vampire fictions.
It worked at first and I was having a blast writing the story. Then, I started running into plot holes. My attempts at rewrite failed miserably and I gave up on the story. My creative writing teacher loved the draft I handed in for a project. So I thought, "What the hell," and finnished the first part of the story, plot holes and all.