The Twist

No...I like stories that do have a twist.But, I believe there are some ingredients that help to make a story a success and a twist is sometimes, one of them.But, it it is not an actual requirement.

I try to avoid twist endings since they usually come off as either cliche or predictable.

Averon 2011 said:

Do short stories have to have a twist at the end? Or am I generalizing too much. I should point out that I'm referring to short stories for children

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Most of the short stories I've read in the big children's print magazines (Highlights, Cricket, Spider, Ladybug, Pockets, Odyssey, etc.) don't have twist endings. Some do, certainly, but not most. In my experience.

It really comes down to the individual magazine's preferences, though. Children's magazines vary widely in what they like to see (for example, Cricket is more "edgy" than Highlights, and Odyssey mostly prints sci-fi and fantasy).

Check out the archives section at www.kidmagwriters.com, which has interviews with editors of many of the major kid markets, as well as a detailed analysis of issues of many major kid mags.

No, all a story needs is a resolution. Twists are nice, but difficult for most writers to pull off. My opinion is not to worry about. I've sold a few stories with twist endings, but I never planned one of them. Any ending should be a natural result of the story. Just end it the way you think it should end, not the way you think some market wants it.