She talks about when you sit down and attempt writing a chapter, is to just first make a mess, write anything and don't worry about it, just keep writing. And in the mess, some rough diamonds may appear, that need further polishing..

I highly recommend the book "writing your dissertation in 15minutes a day" it's been my companion, and whenever i feel stuck or panicked or scared, i read a few pages of the book and it makes me feel better and gives me encouragement and inspiration.

the hardest part, is to get going... the hardest part is staring at a blank piece of paper and starting on a chapter.. but once you allow yourself to just write any old rubbish, it gets easier.

lol no need to say sorry!

it's a concept i read about in the book by Joan Bolker

a zero draft is your first attempt at writing a chapter, it's usually rubbish and crap, and messy, it's not good enough to be called a first draft, but it's better than a blank piece of paper. for me it's really helped to unblock my writers block and my fear and has helped to control my procrastination.

Joan Bolker writes
"A zero draft.... it can be the name you give your accumulated pages the first time they begin to have any shape at all, although they are still so messy that it would be presumptuous to call them a "first draft" yet are clearly more organised than pure chaos.....The zero draft is the point where it becomes possible to imagine, discern, a shape to your material, to see the method in your madness"

that's a really hard decision to make.

i too have been subjected to harsh critisism, and sometimes i do stand up for myself and explain the situation from my side. sometimes i don't say anything and just take it and try to put it behind me.

i feel as phd students, we are subjected to alot of crap and expected to just take it. because our phds are at stake. it's almost like we are kept as hostages.

if you think the critisism is unfounded, maybe it might help to calmly talk to her about how it is making you feel. but instead of critisising her in any way. just have a word saying how it's making you feel. that you don't understand and dont feel the critisism is justified. and ways you can make the project better due to the critisism.

I'm worried about weight gain too..

I've stopped exercising, and feel guilty if i take any time out to exercise. because i feel that i have to work on my thesis all the time, since i only have 3 months left.. but i'm worried about weight gain. because all i do is sit at my desk all day in my study room at home.

perhaps at the end of the day, i should do at least 15minutes on the exercise bike or something..

i do find myself eating alot during the day, anytime i need a break, i want to eat! the curse of writing i suppose. and the last thing i want to do is eat healthy when i feel stressed.

i've stopped leaving the house and have become a hermit!

perhaps i ought to take the bike out and ride it in the park or something in the late afternoon once in awhile (the park is only 5mins from my house). maybe even take some papers or something and work there for an hour or so, change of environment, might help too.

I find having music on in the background whilst I write, to be very helpful. It really helps to keep myself motivated to sit at my desk and work.

So I wanted to ask what music are you currently listening to, and what particular songs help to keep you motivated?

I have certain playlists for different writing "moods"
Sometimes I like listening to slow songs, other times when I really need to get going, I listen to faster songs.

At the moment I am listening to 'viva la vida' by coldplay.

----
What songs do you listen to when you write?

Thanks everyone for your encouragement. I feel better.

i am planning on starting on a new chapter today.

i've set myself a new deadline now.

friday 13th june:
zero draft of
chapter 3
chapter 4
chapter 6

aiming to just get a crappy draft of these chapters done.

*celebrates with Jojo* way hey! here's to submitting crap chapters!


exactly! you did it. so proud of you. and i am sure it's not as crap as you think. you've infintely improved on what you started with! so well done you...

thanks for your encouragement also.

awwww thanks so much Beverley i really appreciate that. :)

missspacey, you're a star! thanks so much for the postive encouragement, I really needed it!!

In the end i didn't take the evening off. I felt so bad that i left out the data she mentioned, that i just had to get it together. so instead will treat myself tommorow, and watch a dvd film, and then get cracking on a new chapter thanks for saying i deserve a little reward for meeting a deadline. that makes me feel less guilty hehe.

yep, thats good advice, to work on another chapter, in the meantime :)
will start on a new chapter tommorow..

----
*clocks out* approx 2 extra hours productive time..

HazyJane, thanks so much for your comment, it really made me feel bettter!!

You're right, she probably is just busy, i don't know why i felt that she was critising me, I guess I am just way overly sensitive these days, and feel guilty for burdening her with my thesis, because i know she has so much on her plate. and i felt bad that i left out data. It was bothering me so much, i spent the past 2 hours pulling out the data and compiling it, and have just emailed it to her. so now i feel better, that it's done

Thanks for the reassurance that 3 months is plenty of time. i really needed to hear that!!

and you're so right!! if you have longer time, you will just take as long. thanks so much, you're so kind

feel too guilty to take the evening off. don't feel that i deserve to. so will do a couple of more hours and sort out the extra data. maybe it will make me feel better...

i'm feeling depressed

just got another email from my 2nd supervisor, and she said she has alot of things to do, and is very busy..and can't look at my draft anytime soon... and told me i forgot to add a whole set of data (which i did, ooooops). so going to work on that next couple of days.

maybe it's too late, and i don't have enough time to write a thesis. as my supervisors are super busy with other stuff. and don't have time to look at my drafts and stuff.

oh well. i will just have to do it on my own, i suppose.

maybe it is too ambitious and unrealistic to think i can write my thesis in 3 months

i guess the best i can do, is write my chapters to the best of my abilitiy, at least then i will have done "something".. better than nothing eh...

Hey BB, not heard from you in awhile, how are you doing? I hope you're okay.

although, i have lost the concept of time.. hours seem to be days! and days weeks...so maybe it's not been that long since you last messaged, but feels like it

and this forum is the best!! i've stopped emailing my friends and facebooking. i'd rather message here, during a break, because it encourages me to get back to writing.. it's nice to be in the company of fellow phd students that really understand what you are going through and encourage and support you and have faith in you that you can do it. positive thinking is very important in writing...

and deadlines REALLY work. I've accomplished more in these two days than i have all week! because i knew i HAD to email my draft by monday (even though the deadline was self imposed, i chose the deadline, but nonetheless for me, I wanted to get it done, so that I could get cracking on the other chapters and even though I am 1 day late ) but no matter!