Last week, I had one primary goal: figure out my next project. This wasn’t a matter of coming up with a new project, but rather a choice between which of several I’d already planned, would I work on next.

I had several to choose from:

“Time’s Tempest,” the Saturn Society short I just turned in, is a complete story in itself, but left a lot of threads open. I intended it to be part one of a serial. So “Time’s Tempest, part two” was one possibility.

I also have two other projects that have been bouncing around for quite a while. One is a standalone novel, and has a rough outline completed.

The other novel is about half written, during NaNoWriMo 2009. Yep, it’s been sitting around that long. The part that’s written needs extensive rework, but I do eventually want to complete this one. It’s intended to be the first in a series of three or four.

And then there’s the third Saturn Society full length novel, the follow-on to Time’s Fugitive.  This one’s still somewhat murky in my mind, but I have some cool ideas bouncing around for this one, and have started pulling them together using a new resource: The Busy Writer’s One-Hour Plot. This book is mostly marketed to writers who don’t like/want to plot, but I found it’s very useful for those of us who have the opposite problem: I plot too much (and spend too much time at it). I will admit I didn’t finish the whole hour, as I was interrupted, but it’s broken down into several sections, so it can still work that way. Best of all? I’ve just started working on this, and I’m already having fun (and that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?)

And considering that I’ve already had readers asking about a third Saturn Society novel, so I’ve decided that’s the project I’m going to work on next. This will take a while, so no promises as far as a time frame! But I am at least working on it now. 🙂 I’m also thinking of fun things I can do with the serial novel that will tie in to this third full novel.

So that brings me around to this week’s goals:

1. Review Holly Lisle’s How to Write a Series
2. Re-read Time’s Enemy and make notes of loose plot threads this third book should address
3. Finalize friend’s book cover if I hear back from the client
4. Fitness 4x (got this one last week too!)

This week brings us to the end of Round 2 for ROW80. I didn’t end up meeting my overall goals of writing 30,000 new words, but goals change. I still accomplished a lot by getting that short story written, and IIRC, that wasn’t part of the original quarterly goals. But those word goals? Next time for sure!

What about you? Whether or not you’re doing ROW80, have your goals changed recently? Have you made any decisions, big or small, that changed them–and did others, like readers or perhaps family, influence your choice? I’d love to hear from you – please share!

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.