writing novellas

I passed 21,000 words in the first book of my new science fiction series yesterday, officially making it a "novella" (novellas are traditionally 20-40,000 words long). I am just about to write the "climactic" final scenes, so the final length should be just under 23,000 words. As I go through my first real edit next, I might add a few bits of dialogue here and there, or even a new scene if it appears the story needs it, but in the end, the story will top out at no more that 25,000 words, so a novella it is.

While comparing this story to my first full-length (95,000-word) novel, Cyberdrome, I have to say I really prefer shorter works. It's not that I'm lazy; it's just that I really prefer to read medium-length stories, especially if there are more stories to come in that universe (I have outlined 4 stories in this series.) Novellas tend to be more concise and to the point (i.e. there is no room for rambling dialogue or "filler" chapters in a 20,000-word story.) Novellas are also closer to the structure of screenplays, which to me is a good thing.
More on the uniqueness of novellas in the link below:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/10/some-notes-on-the-novella.html

Writing Update

I completed 5 chapters of the first book in my new series last night - passing 16,000 words. Only one chapter to go!

As soon as I finish that, I am going to start writing a short story (10-15k words) that I outlined 10 years ago. After that, I'll go back to book #2 in the new series.

I'm on a writing roll!