Maybe I'll just have to get someone to read bits and ask.
Thanks for the et al. bit

Always leave extra time.
A lecturer I know spent 6 weeks on it, I know someone who took 6 years.
I'm in my 4th year and still writing and started early in my 4th year. I could go on indefinately, I can always improve on it.
I would guess 6 months, but it depends how motivated you are, if you're working at the time, if you've analysed already for papers, how much of a perfectionist you are, how good you are at writing, and how quick your supervisor reads drafts.
I've heard it's not a good idea to work at the same time as write-up as some people don't finish.

Any advice...
Talk to your supervisor, and anyone else at university that can give you help. The writing problem might not be the block you think it is and may be resolvable-which aspect is it that you can't do?
In some ways it is hard to tell how good you are without having spent years at it, and is about perseverence. I've felt I'm rubbish and should give up quite a lot, but seem to be doing OK and I hope to finish soon.
I think that maybe I'm not cut out for that sort of environment and instability so want to leave academia.

anyone?

Tell me about it. My supervisor has been on 3 foreign conferences recently. Ask him to read my thesis or where would be good for me to go on a conference and it's a different story.

It would hurt your supervisor's ego.
Our papers are all collaborative with my supervisor's name and a PhD just wouldn't get published on their own. He does actually take papers as a priority.

In academia postdoc up you would probably measure progress with papers..?!

Find a supportive PhD, postdoc or young lecturer to get occasional reassurance from?
Find a distraction from work, e.g. hobby, sport, socialising, nice holiday.
I have one or two books on doing PhDs.
I was on committees which made me feel I was helping PhDs with problems, and did stuff in schools and a business competition which gets you away from work.
If I'm really depressed and unmotivated I sometimes give up and take the day off, then start again the next day.

Counselling, antidepressants?! I know a lot of people in that boat.

You're a part time student, which means you are probably only the equivalent of 1 year full time, and reasonably wouldn't have made any progress.

I'm a 4th year with no publications and have been told I'm still employable. Some people don't get results until their 3rd year. As I understand 4 year PhDs were brought in as it can take up to a year after finishing to get publications.
Research is down to luck sometimes, even if you are clever, work hard, are in the right lab etc. I insisted on a new project at the end of my 2nd year as my first one has been a bit of a turkey.
I'd take it as a good sign you were told you were a "strong" student.

1) Do you put punctuation after et al. (in italics of course) as it already has a full stop,
e.g. et al.. Beginning of new sentence
I've seen commas, but don't know what is correct.

2) Do you need a reference for every time a repeat reference is mentioned? Is is annoying to keep referencing the same work if it is mentioned multiple times, or good as it is clear?
Some of my chapters are questioning work in 2 papers. Can I just write "Blogs et al. suggest that...." all the way through, or "Blogs's spectrum shows that.....?" For most references I was just going to write (Surname et al., 2003) in the text, is it OK to be different for these 2 references?

My lab do one specific M&M chapter. I've done some general techniques, then divided by protein, but it's a work in progress.

Most people have little progress in their first year. The person with groundbreaking research is either very lucky or just a little full of his/her own importance I'd say.
Some people don't get results until their second/even third year. I got mine the end of second year and in third year.
Are there some postdocs who could help you, or could you get different views on what you are supposed to be doing? Supervisors can just be indifferent, mine is. He's off to loads of conferences, I usually hear about it the week before.

I would talk to people. Is there someone else for postgrads to talk to not in your department?
I felt like this early on, but decided to stick out the PhD anyway, and I'm now writing up. I can see the negatives, but make sure it is what you want, a lot of projects can go wrong the first year or so anyway so not neccessarily to do with you, it's the nature of research.
If you're going to drop out it is better at the first year stage. Most PhDs automatically go in as Mphil and upgrade to PhD at the end of year 1 anyway. If you drop out later on it is (if I'm right) seen as not finishing and can be seen as negative that a department/lab has had someone not finish.

I don't think I could work and do a PhD. Is there funding in your area to do a fulltime PhD?
To me a PhD is a difficult, and full-time commitment and work must make it even harder.

Which option to take depends what you want to do afterwards MPhil/PhD, would you need a PhD qualification?

I felt deflated in my 1st, 2nd AND 3rd year meetings. I've now accepted my advisors are just mean individuals and maybe I should have changed advisors.