How I Lost 265,000 Words in Two Years

By Margaret Mandell

No before and after pictures needed here.

But I did have to write 300,000 words to get to my 35,000-word memoir. Those words were the stuff of my life, my heart, my rage, and my grief after the death of my husband of 45 years. I wrote to Herb every day for four years and the writing saved me. I told myself I had written a memoir. But it was not. It was a bloated tome.

I needed help. It would take two coaches and two more years.

My first coach understood that wi...