Hey there. I'm in my second year of a PhD in English. I started late in the first year, so I've only been matriculated for 13 months, but for practical reasons I must submit in September 2012, so 18 months to go. I'm a mature student: left a good job to work on a particular area of research that I had been fiddling around with on my spare time. Went back to uni, did a master's in another discipline as preparation (it's an interdisciplinary topic) at another uni and am now doing a Phd. I love my research idea. I've very excited by my findings so far. But I'm struggling, struggling, struggling with the expectations that I write chapters as I go. I don't have a clear enough thesis to do that well yet. My texts range over nearly a century. Some have been heavily studied by various disciplines (but I disagree with much of the treatment, so there's an iconoclastic element to my work that is potentially dangerous) and some totally ignored (so I'm sometimes dealing with texts whose context needs to be researched). The interdisciplinary nature of my work is not a perfect fit for the Uni I'm at, so I'm kind of alone, intellectually. (Nice place, otherwise.)

My naive sense of this project going in was that I would spend the first two years really immersed in research, and the last year turning that into a dissertation. Yeah, I knew I'd have to share drafts along the way -- but the pressure to begin turning out *chapters* started from day one. I've wasted so much time (my perspective) writing crap drafts (everyone's perspective) for under-researched ideas that don't fit into a clear overall thesis -- all in a failed effort to keep supervisors happy with my progress. I'm starting to get depressed by the humiliation of submitting crap drafts to frustrated supervisors who think I can't write (can't blame them for reaching that conclusion based on my submissions, but I do blame them for a process that makes no sense to where I am).

I must admit, I read posts on this board from other PhD students who complain they're in final year and only just starting to write -- and I'm jealous, but they seem to be working outside the humanities. My own way of working would be to be writing notes on these texts, and drafting my interpretations of individual texts, and create summaries of my secondary sources, and drafting summaries of my evolving lines of arguments, etc. -- and not start writing a dissertation that synthesized all this until after that research was done. As it is, I'm taking that approach "on my own time," but it's slowed down (physically) by the need to write under-researched draft chapters for a vague dissertation, and (mentally/spiritually/psychically) by the humiliations of the process as it stands.

Any insights? I'm beginning to think that my circumstances didn't lend themselves to my project: I should have just done a PhD that was an extension of my master's, and not really started research afresh.

I was a history student, and my PhD was in a totally new topic to me, even if it fell under the wider cultural context of my Masters. I started writing from the word go, but expected early drafts to be gibberish. Only about halfway through my part-time PhD did I start writing properly. Even then there was a lot of gibberish! However I found the writing process helpful, if painful, for working out my ideas and conclusions, which I couldn't have reached without doing the writing.

I had to refocus my thesis in the final year/months, linking up the chapters, and writing an overall conclusions chapter. But it was still surprising just how much of my early writing carried through to the completed thesis.

I also personally think it's highly optimistic in a humanities discipline just to think you can write up in the last full-time year (or part-time equivalent). Humanities theses are very long, and very complex/interlinked. They take time to produce. So the earlier you can start, the better. And the more writing you do - however awful it might seem early on - the better you will get at it. I had huge writing problems too. I needed that extra time to improve my writing to the required standard. I virtually had to restart my writing from scratch at one point. This was despite sailing through a Masters with distinction.

Also I was rather in charge of my own schedule and writing. I was a mature part-time student, so dictated my own deadlines and structure. My supervisors were much more in a supporting role, rather than telling me what to do. I'd tell them what I was going to do and how they were to help me :p

Does that help at all? I think you need to speak to your supervisors about your concerns. But it sounds as though you might benefit from woking on your writing at the moment. And if you are having problems now, might you not also if you left it to the very last stages?

Good luck!