I'd use your preptober to knock down those 10K words then so you can get that feel for them going into November! I'll also copy and past my response on a different post about working on multiples if you want to see a little about how I personally deal with plotting/preparing a new work
-Getting used to working on multiples takes practice, so the more you do it, the better you'll get! I always have more than one project that I'm working on at a time. My plotting consists of writing down the big scenes that I need to get to and keeping notes on where my character development is at each part of the story.
For character development - With Wren, I've been sticking to Maslow's hierarchy of needs. He's currently working on the Love and Belonging tier while having a couple doubts as to the stability of the bottom tiers.
Jackson is already at the Self-Actualization stage, so at this point his character development happens when he's put in the same dorm as scholarship students as opposed to the rich boy dorms. Different experiences are what will push him into changing while Wren is still working on developing into himself.
I also keep track of my romance arc with the help of 'Romancing the Beat' by Gwen Hayes. Though I've edited her formula to fit my own writing style.
I have bullet points on my MC's backstory, what they want, etc.
So using The Love of a Werewolf as an example -
Big Plot Points
- Wren and Jackson meet
- Wren agrees to help free werewolves
- Wren and Jackson meet Liam and Zain at school
- Etc
Sometimes I have a long list of bullet points, sometimes I only have a couple. It depends on how plot heavy my novel is. If I'm writing just a romance, then I just mark down my main romance points and let the characters develop as I go. With TLoaW, there's a pretty heavy liberation plot going on so I had a lot more notes on points that I needed to hit.
With The Ghost of Summerside Cemetery,
Plot points
- MC runs away from shitty home
- He finds a job as a cemetery groundskeeper.
- Haunted statue
- Etc
Keeping my plot points small allows me to fill in the rest as I write. The specifics behind his bad home life are in his character bullet pointed list.
I don't know if this helped at all? It's what works for me and allows me to keep track of what's going on in each story -