I've been stuck...since Tuesday I would say, trying to write or make some progress on the all important Interpretation and Discussion chapter. When I last wrote I said I would sit down and write...I tried this on Thursday and came up with a blank page - well I did lots of brainstorming but everything seemed so lame, so unbelievable, lacking plausibility. The problem plaguing my writing of this thesis all along reared it's very ugly and destructive head! I want everything to be worked out in my head before I write and because it isn't this major blockage occurs. Also I want my writing to be perfect the first time even though I know this is an impossibility (as the many, many draft versions of everything I've written so far suggests). So instead of committing to paper my thoughts and ideas no matter how rough, I spend all my energy fretting about all the gaps in my argument and how R & M and anyone for that matter, will see all the obvious holes in my discussion.
In desperation I turned to the supervisors - as you do in such times. Besides the very helpful practical suggestion offered, especially to counter the negative writing pattern that seems to overwhelm me, I got this little gem...and it is a gem because I think it so beautifully captures where I need to get to and how I need to trust myself
I think, in the end, it will be about you coming to a stronger sense of what/who you have actually been studying and why - this sense will belong to you and no-one else will be in a position to gainsay it on either methodological or conceptual grounds simply because they won't own it like you do. Trust yourself on this.
I have become a bit unstuck (wrote 1000 words yesterday) and think as I head into the new week it will get better and I might have an 'goodish' Draft 1 of the Interpretation and Discussion chapter come Friday/Saturday.
No comments:
Post a Comment