If your paper is accepted, you'll need to pay fees......at this point, you may need your supervisor!

Think of it this way:
Someone is paying you to give you the training and the degree.

It's your choice to do a PhD, whether you like it or not.

There's no free lunch in this world.......

I guess I just lack the confidence to speak to my supervisor...
Perhaps this's a cultural difference.
In my mind, supervisor is ALWAYS superior....and I'm just a small potato in front of him.
Just like a junior office-boy & the CEO of a large company.

It'll take me ages to read as well.
It's quick to LOOK at the words. However, it's more difficult to really understand what a paper is talking about. People tend to complicate things rather than to simplfy them.
Perhaps this is also a language barrier (English is my second language).

7 months since I begin my PhD, I haven't yet figured out what I'll do for my PhD project.
No thorough literature review has been done...and all "easier" and interesting projects have been taken up by other lab members (and of course, competitors).
If I could start again, I'd rather take a year off to think about what I really want to do for my PhD.....
it's too late to say this now.

After working continuously on a problem for so many years, I think it's normal to hate the topic.....
I've been working on a side-project for almost 5 months, and I begin to dislike it....no interest and no motivation to finish it off.

I guess most, if not all PhD students get very frequent emotional ups and downs.
People like me with low EQ have to find ways to get rid of negative feelings, or else
we all have to see a psychiatrist (In fact, I did see a psychiatrist once)!

So what is your PhD in?

Thanks Grey's "when you think about it, it makes it more awkward in a way!!".

It's true, I've been thinking too much, perhaps. Before I speak to my supervisor, I have to think so carefully on the wordings that won't make me "sound stupid"....and I find this a very stressful thing to do.

I'm 7 months in........and still not very motivated. I don't have any idea on what my PhD thesis will be like...

I usually become very tense and uncomfortable when I speak to my supervisor. I don't have such nervousness towards other postdocs or PhD students....weird...

Well.....I know my supervisor is a friendly guy. I think it's just my own problem...
Thanks anyway.

don't know why. just don't want to see him. got nothing to say if he comes for a chat...

Recently, I keep trying to escape seeing my supervisor.
I did experiment while he's working in his office, and I left before he'd a chance to talk to me.
I thought he won't come to lab on Saturdays, but I was wrong this time. I felt like "got caught"...He talked to me 3 times! (Although it's like "How're things going?" "Hi!" ... etc.) However, I don't want to speak to him at all!
I think he won't be in the lab tomorrow (Sunday), I'll go back to do my experiment, and take Monday off.
I have no one to talk to......what a shame!

PhD in Oxbridge? I only have an MSc in Oxford.