Holy Tom Turkey–November already! And I’m sure lots of you are rockin’ National Novel Writing Month or Tara Lazar’s Picture Book Idea Month. Keep up the good work!

I’m doing something a little different this November: I’m taking off.

Not that I won’t be working. Quite the contrary. I just returned from a lovely writing retreat up in the North Georgia mountains where I started my next middle grade novel and I can’t wait to work on it. So I will be deep into novel-writing this month. And I have a couple other projects that I’ve been dragging my pen on–and I absolutely need to finish them.

See, the mistake I make (and honestly, not just in November) is over-committing to challenges. Sometimes, it’s a big and fancy challenge like NaNo and sometimes, it’s just me, setting one goal too many. When I impose too much, I fail to accomplish what really matters.

But here’s the great thing about mistakes: we can learn from them. Speaking of which, I wrote about New Writer Mistakes (That No Writer Can Afford To Make) over at The Muffin. The truth is, new writer or experienced writer, we can always learn from our mistakes and learn a lesson or two.

So, this November, I’ll be working alongside all of you, working on your challenges. And here’s to all of us, accomplishing what really matters!