Hello,

I am about to begin the first draft of my first chapter, and guess what? I have not managed to write anything, but half a sentence since yesterday, when I decided to start writing.

I have a plan for my chapter, I roughly know what I want to say, but I cringe at the words I write! I think of something to write, then I tell myself that it is not of a good quality because it is rather superficial, and therefore, I delete and am left with a blank screen!

I have a deadline soon, but I can't seem to be able to write! I am scared! How to overcome this belief that everything I write is bad, and start writing?

When I feel blocked like that I make myself keep writing however bad I think the writing is because once you have something on the page you can go away, think about about, sleep on it, whatever and then gradually work it into something better. For me, one of the hardest things on the PhD has been getting used to sending work to my supervisor when I feel it's not ready, not perfect, but I'm slowly gettting used to it. It's your first chapter - even if your supervisor is really critical of it, it doesn't matter. You can learn from the criticism and do better next time. Just keep writing and good luck!

I have had this problem recently too. I usually write like you are describing: if it's not good I would delete and start again. I found I couldn't write anything and was just staring at a blank screen for ages.

I tried free writing, where you just write continuously for at least 5 minutes without stopping. It felt weird at first but at the end of the day it felt good because I had something down on paper, and I could then revise it the next day so at least I felt I had done something.

It's taken me about 4 months to write 2500 on one particular subject because I found this one subject so difficult to understand and write about. It's finally at a stage for me to send to my supervisor this week - but I don't think I would have been able to do without the free writing. So give it a go and see if it works for you!

I agree I always write like that, never knew it was called free writing though, learnt something today :)

I agree with Tree of Life, it seems to be the best approach to create a first draft.

Set an alarm clock for half an hour and start writing whatever you know on the subject. If you cannot think about anything related to your PhD, start writing down whatever is in your mind.

We used to do an exercise with a friend of mine: we would go to a cafe in the morning, and we were not allowed to order coffee until we wrote 500 words (no judgement on the quality).