Writer's Corner: Writing for fun and profit (but mostly fun)

[Yora]

My target length is somewhere in the middle; 20,000 to 40,000 words. Long enough for a good story, but only so long that you can work with a single plot idea. That's about the length of Shadow over Innsmouth or Red Nails.

I am assuming most here are writing fantasy or science fiction (or thinking about it). What's your approach to nonhumans? From what I've been seing the last couple of years, these seem to be almost limited to RPGs with barely any presence in literature and even movies.