Who's afraid of O. Henry?

Flash fiction usually has a clever twist at the end. That's good, right? Not so fast, says PJ Kaiser.

A few weeks ago, I started perusing some of the magazines listed at Duotrope’s Digest and I came across several magazines and online sites that admonish writers to avoid O. Henry endings.

The first one or two times I saw this warning, I didn’t take much notice. But then as I began to see the same message over and over, I tried to interpret its meaning. I wanted to be sure that I wasn’t violating some sort of unwritten – or, in some cases, written – rule with my stories.

It's an informative article; go check it out.