Update.

[rivka]

After my last post, I spent many, many more hours futzing around not getting work done and being pissed at myself as a result. Finally, I put on a 40-minute CD (English Country Dance music, which I find helps me be calm and orderly) and told myself that I had to work on my dissertation until the CD was finished.

I started with the easiest task I could think of, incorporating new citations into the References section. Then I started putting John's edit of the Introduction together with the edit I did before he got back to me. At some point I noticed that the CD had ended and started it again from the beginning. I took a break to have dinner and watch a Buffy episode with curiousangel, and then I came back and finished editing the Introduction section. It still needs a snappy first sentence other than "Don't call me Ishmael," but other than that it's probably Good Enough.

Thanks to everyone who's been supportive. What's helped the most is having people with Ph.D.s tell me that this is a normal stage of the process, and not something specifically broken about me - but all of the encouragement and sympathy has helped. Thanks.

Comments

[ranunculus.livejournal.com]

We all know you will make it through this!

[maureenkspeller.livejournal.com]

I should also add that your description of your experiences is very helpful to at least one of those further down the study chain, learning how to deal with an overflowing 'to do' list.

[geminigirl]

Interesting, what you said about having other people with PhDs tell you that this is normal, because I've learned so much from watching your process.

(It does make me wonder if I'm ready to contemplate going back to school for mine, but since the dissertation part is quite far off even if I do, there are far more dreadful things like statistics courses to contemplate first.)

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Very good progress darling. Maybe that first sentence will come to you today.

[therealjae.livejournal.com]

Sorry I wasn't around to tell you the thing that helps the most, but let me just repeat it. This is normal. Everybody goes through this.

Did I ever tell you that my dad's advice to me when I was searching for a topic was: "Pick something you love. Because whatever it is, you will come to hate it."? :-)

-J

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

It still needs a snappy first sentence other than "Don't call me Ishmael,"

"so no shit, there i was, minding my own business as i so often am when these things happen to me..."

[fourgates.livejournal.com]

~swoon~

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

aw.

as with many of my best lines, i stole this one, possibly from elisem.

but i did actually use it to start a final paper for a college class. got a decent grade on the paper, too.

[txanne.livejournal.com]

Sorry I missed the original post! Just to add some repetitious redundancy, which is always handy for padding one's scholarly output: this is a normal part of almost-doneness. Everybody I know has gone through the same thing in their last 3-4 weeks. You're doing just fine!