Like many authors, my mystery writing publishing journey began with the publication of a few short stories, one of them, a flash fiction piece titled ‘Beautiful Killer’ was picked up by Untreed Reads for Flash and Bang, a collection of short crime fiction stories penned by members of the Short Mystery Fiction Society. Since that time, I’ve written and published seven full-length novels, edited and produced three multi-author short story anthologies of mystery and suspense, and written a handful of short crime fiction, six of which have been published, with one under consideration, and one in desperate need of revision.

Now, some people will tell you that writing short is easier than writing long, but in my opinion, long is much, much easier that short.

Part of that could be because I’m a pantser. I always start with a basic premise, but beyond that I haven’t a clue. I just pants my way merrily along finding out whodunit, why-they-dunit, and any other dunits, chapter by chapter, surprising myself until I get close to the end and it’s time to wrap things up. I figure if I’m surprised, the reader will be too.

That sort of approach might work for novels, but in my experience short stories offer no such luxury. Simply put, you need to get in and get out without a lot of dipsy doodling, and while some short story authors may well be pantsers, I expect most fall firmly into the plotter’s camp, or at least into the “I’m pretty sure I know where this is going” camp.

Let’s look at my latest novel, Before There Were Skeletons, and do a quick review:

Basic Premise: Private investigator Calamity (Callie) Barnstable has been hired to solve the cold case of Veronica Goodman, an eighteen-year-old single mom who went missing in the small town of Miakoda Falls in 1995, leaving behind a one-year-old daughter and a newly signed apartment lease.

Could this work as a short story? Definitely.

Expanded Premise: Turns out Veronica’s cold case might be related to the cold cases of two other young women who went missing in Miakoda Falls, always on a Tuesday, and within a few weeks of Veronica.

Could it still work in the short story? Yes, though you’d have to be succinct in the details. In the book, I’ve allowed for the entire missing persons profile for each of the three women in question. In a short story those details would need to be pared down considerably.

Sub-plot: While Callie is trying to solve the case of Veronica Goodman, she’s also delving through her mother’s high school yearbooks. FYI, Callie’s mother disappeared in 1980, when she was six, and hasn’t been part of her life since. Her grandmother, downsizing, has found the yearbooks and wants Callie to have them. You see, Callie’s mom quit school at age seventeen because she was pregnant with Callie.

Could this work in the short story? As a rule, short stories don’t have sub-plots, and they certainly don’t have complicated sub-plots, as this one is. But a mention of Callie’s demons—a missing mother that fuels her desire to solve a cold case, that could work. Especially since both Veronica Goodman and Callie’s mother disappeared on Valentine’s Day, albeit many years apart.

A new employee: This is book 4 and gone are Callie’s previous three co-workers, replaced by one Denim Hopkins, a twenty-four-year-old tech savvy waitress.

Could this work in a short story? Yes, if the past connections are mere mentions and Denim’s role is necessary, but my gut feel is that the short story would be stronger with both the past and the present co-workers/employees omitted. When it comes to short fiction, less is more.

Two more cold cases: While going through her mother’s high school yearbooks, Callie uncovers two more cold cases, which may or may not be related to her current case.

Could this work in the short story? Not a chance. It’s just too complicated to cram into a few thousand words.

And there you have it. A quick comparison on writing short and writing long. But whatever way you slice the pickle, it all starts with a premise. Where the premise goes, well, that’s up to the writer. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

*A version of this post was originally published on the Short Mystery Fiction Society’s blog page. If you enjoy short fiction, I encourage you to join SMFS – it’s free and they have a wonderfully interactive Groups.io members’ forum, as well as frequent guest posts on their blog. SMFS also sponsor the prestigious Derringer Awards.