Kurt Vonnegut tells us how short stories should be written. This is very apt after a stimulating conversation with new and old friends at the National Writers’ Conference in Birmingham at the weekend. At least two of his points came up in our conversation: start as close to the end as possible and write to please just one person. I’m not sure about saying, ‘to heck with suspense,’ I think something has to be held back otherwise why does the reader hang around? Answers on a postcard.
Garrie Fletcher 
I often use Vonnegut’s rules with groups, as a way of discussing whether there can or should be “rules” for writing, and the suspense one always provokes the most comment. My guess is that Vonnegut was taking a swipe at the “twist” ending, at what the Turkey City Lexicon calls the “Jar of Tang” story. A good story should have the seeds of its ending in its beginning.
Put like that it makes much more sense. I feel cheated if there’s a ‘twist’ at the end that feels more like an act of God rather than something that has flowed from what’s already been discovered.