I always think of any art as having wide parameters.  Not true in some creative circumstances.  For instance, to me, a story has a beginning, a middle, and an end.  In a current writing class, mine has these three, but doesn’t have “high stakes” or “conflict.”  My story isn’t meant to.  My story is a window onto a period of time or an event I experienced.  I intended to write several short character studies of people I have known.  Sigh, guess I need rethink that — maybe have one character shoot the other.