I received feedback from my advisor that there's a lack of confidence in the tone of my manuscript. I was taken aback, because I thought I was doing a good job of hiding how utterly terrified I am of facing the oral defense (viva). I didn't relieve how much it shows in my writing!
Without going into too many boring details, my degree is in the humanities, and the fieldwork didn't go as expected. At the same time (like many people on this forum) along the way on this PhD journey, a lot of challenging situations came up in my personal life, which rattled my self-confidence.
I really enjoy writing and data collection. In fact, writing is often a nice "escape." However, the thought of having to defend my ideas in front of a panel of experts is disconcerting. This may seem like a strange question, but how can I build up confidence in a short time in order to get through the defense without falling apart?