I’m on the homestretch of a deep, final edit of my memoir, Stitching a Patchwork Life, and have found this the most fascinating part of the entire writing journey. The draft topped out at 115,000 words and my goal has been to reduce the manuscript to about 95,000, or less, words.
Today I broke through the 100,000 milestone and closed out the day at 99,902 words. I 
celebrated with a cup of tea! Now, with seven chapters remaining to edit, I know I’ll meet my goal. As the words melt away while I focus on one paragraph and then the next, my writing becomes more concise and I can both sense and see the story transforming from an adolescent phase of writing into a mature form. It’s exhilarating.
On another note, some of you know I’ve been working at losing weight. (That story is here.) As I worked out on my treadmill yesterday morning, part of walking my ten thousand steps daily, I had a sudden thought: my manuscript and I – we are both slimming down.
Such a good feeling!
Wishing you each a fine weekend.
About Mary Jo Doig
Mary Jo Doig was the first in her family to attend college and graduated from the State University at Oneonta in New York’s Catskill Mountains with a degree in Secondary English Education/Educational Psychology. There she fell in love with rural life, remained, and eventually transitioned from city girl to country woman when she married a dairy farmer and raised their three children on their small family farm.
A life-long lover of reading and writing, Mary Jo has for nearly twenty years been a member of the Story Circle Network. There she has been an editor, a women’s writing circle facilitator, a book reviewer, and life-writing enthusiast, working extensively with women writing their life-stories while writing her own memoir. Presently, she is a three-time Program Chair for SCNs national Stories from the Heart conference and a board member. She also facilitates Older Women’s Legacy workshops and a women’s life-writing circle in her area communities. Her stories have appeared in Kitchen Table Stories anthology, Story Circle Annual Anthologies, and most recently her story “I Can’t Breathe” was published in the Anthology, Inside and Out: Women’s Truths, Women’s Stories. Her work also appears in varied blogs and periodicals, on her blog Musings from a Patchwork Quilt Life (https://maryjod.wordpress.com), Facebook, and Twitter.
Her son and two daughters grown, Mary Jo presently treasures her country life in Virginia’s Central Shenandoah Valley. She loves cooking (and eating!) healthy food, reading, writing, quilting, hiking, and spending quality time with her rescue cats, Button and Xena, and beagle, Addie, who each dream of being only children.
Her first book, Patchwork: A Memoir of Love and Loss, will be published in October, 2018 by She Writes Press.
Musings From a Patchwork Quilt Life 
Congratulations, Mary Jo. You are on a roll!
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GO girlfriend !!! Congratulations!!! I am so happy for you!!!
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Thank you, Sue!
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Thank you so much, Marjorie! It’s been a long time coming!
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Looking forward to reading your slimmed down memoir one day, Mary Jo!
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Thank you, Martha. I’m honored. You’ll get to meet my dual-diagnosed sister, Jackie.
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