[@Shoryu Magami]  Heavy handed narrative is almost entirely independent of medium, I think.  And visual novel generally implies that a person can make choices and interact to some degree.  Although I think the MorphE webcomic (mature content warning, if you look it up) is considered a visual novel even though interaction is very limited.  But yeah, the ability to use multiple types of media is very useful, particularly for details.  And I never said weak storytelling.  A straightforward manner does not mean poorly written, simply a different style.  

I know the word novella only because of NaNoWriMo (which has a target of 50K words) and thus they said technically it's more a National Novella Writing Month, but that's the only place I've ever heard it used.  With...possibly one or two exceptions I've since forgotten.

If you want an example of one story over multiple installments, hm.  NOvel-length installments...I don't know if there are any.  Mostly because if you reach a certain length, it becomes possible to find resting points where putting a break feels right.  Sort of like chapter breaks, but in different books.  I /might/ suggest the Daggerspell book and its accompanying series, but the narrative jumps time periods a lot, and is pretty complicated.  Actually, you might like it for that, even if it isn't episodic.  It's been a long time; I forget how solidly separated the books were.

Now I'm getting confused.  You're saying serialization of light novels as opposed to regular novels, and yet I see books in all sorts of series formats.  And we've established that light novels are likewise episodic or not as the fancy takes the author.

However I do know with the rise of self-publishing and ebooks, there are things being released that are called novels (or at least books) but are not complete stories.  I've read a couple.  They sorta have a start, middle, and end, but there's such big unanswered questions that will be handled in later books that I don't consider it a complete story (something I rather dislike them doing, I should add, as it basically forces someone to buy the rest of the "series" or not get answers).

One reason I feel writing to be superior to most other media is because it is the only one where you can really get inside the heads of different people, see what they're thinking and feeling.  Particularly if one often misses social cues, as I do.  Yes, you can miss things even in writing, or perhaps the author implies but does not state, but it still feels far more connected to the people there, instead of going /only/ off expressions and actions.  The drawback is that no matter how much you describe something's appearance, the mental image probably will be different from someone else's.

Ugh, I know I keep saying this, but, obsessive details is a huge turn-off to me.  I can handle a wide range, but while details do make the story, so does execution.  That is to say, details may make the story, but they can also break it.  ^.^;