Hi Anz, Yes I've had to re-write sections of my thesis innumerable times. I can't even begin to count how many for some of the sections. But really this is about learning a skill and each time I've re-drafted and taken on board my sup's comments I get much better as a thinker and as a writer. So it is not going round in circles, although, yes, it does certainly feel that way sometimes...

Thank you for this Pink Neuron! Your story has really cheered me up on a grey morning x

Morning Emaa! I had the weekend off after all... was really tired, almost certainly due to all the stress I've had lately, I had a very restful day yestereday in front of the telly and asleep on the sofa for most of it.

Anyway, I'm here now, fully dressed and washed, have just finished my toast, am about to have my cup of tea and then off to work.

I hope your day starts well.

Hi Docinsanity! Thank you for that. I've ony done about an hour and half of editing/writing today, so you've made me feel much better. I ended up going out for a walk this afternoon and bumped into my frend's mum and dad - she emigrated a few months ago, so we were chatting for a while. I also saw another old friend... and now I'm home I jsut feel like flopping. I too will do some work tomorrow. Sometimes I am more productive at weekends, perhaps because I am a bit rebellious and I should be relaxing/not working then... so I concentrat well, plus Sundays are so wonderfully quiet.

Best folks!

Hi Emaa!

I am finally up - I overslept... Am about to have my breakfasst and then get going on my work. I hope your day is good so far!

Hi Emaa, I hope your morning is going well. I've just finished doing some writing and am going to start getting ready for an appointment I have this morning, then shopping with my mum this afternoon... Yes naughty I know.

Glad you are fully dressed, and not dressed up - which would be quite inappropriate for daywear ('dressed up' means either special occasion wear or fancy dress) unless, of course, you are dressed as a banana or similar!

Good luck

Morning Emaa!

I am, in fact, fully dressed, eating my toast and drinking some tea. My desk is set up in and I'll be doing some writing soon... But I'll be here for abut ten minutes more.

p.s. I am happy to correct you when you make mistakes in English (it is 'make mistakes', not 'do mistakes').

Hi Emaa,

I like ot get up early and start work straight away, but lately I've been slacking and keeping irregular hours. Perhaps I will start an accountability thing here and say hello to you on the morning at 7! I too often start work in my pyjamas, or alternatively stay on the sofa in my pyjamas... So I think the advice about getting dressed is good stuff, I would feel in work mode then - or least not quite so much in lounging about mode. Although I do always eat breakfast - porrige or toast and tea.

I too have a small work space. Mine is in my hall, but I find it very effective. I have painted my hall plain white and sit on a nook facing the wall so I have no distractions - I also have no internet access in there, I use an old fashioned cable connection which is only fitted in the living room. I have found that making this a comfortable, pleasant place to be means I look forward to being there and writing, it feels like my special place. I always keep it warm, much warmer than the rest of my flat and I light a scented candle when I am writing, it's a kind of ritual which helps me zone in to my work and leave everything else behind. I use this place for writing only and I go to the living room if I run out of steam, need to do something else or need a break.

I will say hello in the morning, fully dressed I hope!

Thank you Docinsanity! Both the replies I have had to this have been very encouraging to me... I am now seeing this whole thing as a relly valuable tool for getting my thesis ready for the harshest criticiam to come in the outside world. The feedback from my examoner has made me realise just hw controversial my work is... and how much it could challenge certain people, so I need to get it ready for that. If I can pursuade my awkward examiner, then I can pursuade anyone. My supervisor loves my stuff, he was really excited in the run up to the panel, so I guess I am intellectual marmite, and I will have to learn to live with that.

Hello Emaa! Yes I am in a similar situation...I live about 3 hours from the uni, so feel quite cut off from the department. And I sit alone! However I don't mind that when I am writing, in fact it's good, somehow I don't feel isolated then, I guess I am engaging with people. It's the other bits that get to me, I'd like some companionship in what I am doing... maybe we should say hello to eachother now and again! I take it you are an early starter/riser?

Hi Wolfie! Thank you for that lovely, encouraging response. Yes it does feel like a valuable learning experience, in a lot of ways. I just hope I can get another internal examiner - we are a very small department. I think there is just one other person who can do it, I hope they are better!

Hi folks,

Some of your thoughts would be most appreciated here...

I didn't pass my upgrade. I can see why, I don't think I am ready yet. Although I have a lot of words done, they are from the latter part of the thesis - not those in which the framework is worked out. I am only now writing chapter one and formulating things. In addition to this gap in my knowledge, I was not sure of myself in my responses to questions at the interview, probably precisely because there is a gap in my knowledge.

The thing that is p'ing me off though is that, aside from the valid points I mention above, the prof who interviewed me is veeeeerrrry critical of my stuff, but not in a constructive way. He seems to be almost fabricating reasons to knock my work, twisting things I've written, while he seems to deliberately mis-understand me at every possible opportunity etc. And this is not just at the upgrade thing, he has done this publicly at a conference in front of the whole department when he seemed to miss the entire point of my paper and made aggressive comments about it, when quite a few other people in the audience said my point was abundantly clear right from the word go - and a couple defended me during the discussion.

I feel quite uncomfortable around this person and this effects my confidence when answering his questions, although I am getting better at that, I was quite confident by the end of the upgrade interview and I'm finding that a useful way of learning to perform under pressure. However, I do not want this person to make decisions about the future of my PhD. Does anyone have experience of changing an examiner in these situations? Answers to this and any thoughts would be most welcome. Thank you!

I know, sometimes I feel as if writing that many words in that amount of time to PhD quality is not possible and when I think about it my head blows off... But it must be possible because others have done it.

I find the hardest thing is the amount of formulating I'm doing. For example I've been working on a 6k chapter for the last few weeks and the process has taken the framing of my thesis to another level - that's great but it's much more time consuming than just writing 6k words... The next chapter I'll be doing - which I hope to have finished by Crimbo or thereabouts will be similar. I also find that sometimes I need a day or so inbetween bouts of writing and editing for my ideas to formulate.

This is a good thread. Just what I need at the moment.

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I'm doing something similar. Am aiming for 'summer' 2013, so June at best, September at worst. I am also trying for 500+ words per day, but not sure whether I'm making that or not because some days I do well over 1000 words but most times I edit or do other stuff like picking up bits of research and don't really add to the word count per-se.

I have about 32,000 words complete at submission standard and about a further 14,000 words in first draft. My thesis is going to be about 80,000 words long when finished, so that means I need to write about 40-50,000 further words.

I'm curious to know how much other people have to write, where people are up to.

Hi Sneaks,

If they had some books you could do the getting to the bottom of a book in 10 minutes excercise... Are they at the right stage for that? My masters students found it most useful.

I hope all is going well.