Sitting up doing some more late night spreadsheeting. I'm awake and thinking clearly by this time of night. Can get an hour or two of useful work done. Slow, but it's progress.

Less than a year into my lengthy part-time PhD I discovered that there was a full-time student at another university who was doing an incredibly closely related topic. In fact his project moved closer to mine as he went on, and he completed successfully years before me, including moving on to publishing more articles than me. My supervisor reassured me that it was ok. Even if we were doing exactly the same topic - which we weren't quite, with some differences in approach, even if much of the evidence was the same - two separate approaches are perfectly valid, and my PhD wasn't in jeopardy. So think positive thoughts. It is a horrible shock when this happens, but it isn't the end of your PhD by a long chalk.

I've written peer-reviewed journal papers but my main focus during the PhD has been on writing thesis chapters, so I'd prefer to answer from that perspective, especially since I've almost finished and am glad it's behind me! The process was much more tortuous than I expected. Obviously there has to be the research done, either before or alongside the writing. Only with research do I have something worth writing about. And then that leads to ...

1. Think about structure, scribble down lots of notes and rough ideas/brainstorm
2. Start with the intro (don't know why: I always want to start with the start, even if I deviate after)
3. Then start picking off the sections based on which I feel more like writing a bit
4. Repeat 3 until I've finished all the sections
5. Print out and scribble all over with a red pen to edit majorly
6. Make revisions. Spell check
7. Send to supervisors and get feedback back months later. Ouch. Writing style has to totally change
8. So total rewrite. Mega ouch! Spell check again
9. Send off to supervisors again. Get more trivial feedback. Draw up list of things to fix
10. Rewrite again, though less painfully. End up with complete thesis draft. Combine chapters into 1 document. Spell check again
11. Send off to supervisors. Again wait months for feedback. Final revisions suggested, based on total argument etc.
12. Rewrite for the last time
13. Submit!

It's a very prolonged process and the worst bit was the writing style being so bad. In the end I've gone through 5 main writing phases in my thesis production: early rough chapter versions including literature review, first proper go at chapters, then have to rewrite majorly so here we go again, then rewrite after less critical feedback, and finally rewrite after supervisors see the full draft. And supervisors can take many months to send feedback (even though I'm part-time time is an issue), so it takes *ages*. Not much fun.

I work from home (part-time student) and regularly email updates to my chapters etc. to my uni account. And I also copy them occasionally to my husband's work. As a computer science graduate I don't see how sending them to the uni email is insecure. It can only be accessed by someone who knows my password, so shouldn't be eminently hackable. And, frankly, who else would be that interested in my thesis chapters? :p

Thanks Walminskipeasucker. Afraid I'm long-term ill and getting worse (progressive incurable disease), so being knocked out is a problem all the time now. I've been finding it very hard to do anything on the PhD during the day - just too floored, even if awake. So glad to grab what has turned into a couple of productive hours just now. So glad to be getting to the end. But that's me signing off for now. Happy with what I've done. Good luck anyone else up and about now.

Another nocturnal worker. I'm very knocked out at the moment for much of the day (seriously ill), so grabbing an hour after midnight while more with it to try to get something useful done. Am finishing off preparing a spreadsheet for loading into a database. Just got to categorise a few more things.

Dunleavy has things to say about this in his "Authoring a PhD" book. Generally he recommends that chapters come in at about 10,000 words. They can be shorter, or longer, but that's about the ideal length he believes, both for the writer to make them properly structured and work well, and for the reader to digest. That's the length all mine came in at, give or take a bit, but that's as much coincidence and happenstance as by design!

Good luck! I always feel rather a big sense of a relief when I send something off like that. Then the trepidation kicks in as I wonder if it was really finished and what the feedback will be!

I left a research council PhD 13 years ago. I didn't have to repay anything back from the time I was a student. No sanctions were taken against me. It did have consequences for subsequent research council funding, when I applied for a part-time (totally opposite discipline) PhD 6 years ago. The second funding form asked me to declare if I'd received prior funding. The second research council reserved the right to reduce any subsequent funding I received accordingly. I declared my previous round of funding, but because it was a totally different discipline and because I'd dropped out before due to serious illness I don't think it caused any problems and I got full funding again. And I've nearly finished.

I agree that PhDs can be a benefit to medical professionals. Even people who are qualified doctors often pay dearly to do a separate PhD. If you could finish your PhD before starting the medical school (can't you delay starting medical school by a year?) that might be something in your favour. But if you're very unhappy definitely feel free to quit.

Sue2604's advice is spot on. I think your situation is totally turn-roundable, but you've got to talk candidly to your supervisor, and start getting back into the swing of things. I'm constantly having to do this myself due to being knocked out due to illness. I'm a firm believer in the use of to-do lists to get things going again. Draw up lists of things to do and start picking off the most appealing ones (or least unappealing?!). This will get you on the right track again and build up your confidence, and so the cycle carries on. Good luck.

Thanks folks for the replies. I should have maybe added that I'm a part-time student, seriously ill long-term, and lucky if I have 5 good hours for the PhD total a week. So 7 months to go is a very short time in practical terms. I sent my main supervisor a panic email today. Want to arrange a meeting or something to reassure me. Just slightly freaked out over losing a whole month, and the research taking longer than planned. Must be positive though. Good luck everyone!

Nice to hear how others are getting on. Unfortunately I've just lost a month due to swine flu on top of existing serious illness. Doesn't help the nerves that! It's now just over 7 months to my university deadline and the tension is building. The research I'm working on to finish plugging a gap is taking longer than expected, but I've got back to it in the last couple of days. Just want it out of the way now. I'm building a massive database and it's slow-going. I think the subsequent analysis and writing will be fast though. I'm also waiting to hear my supervisors' view of my virtually-finished thesis, and hoping they don't want major rewrites. Aint got time! And did I mention the tension? :p