I took a 5-month official medical break in 2007 so had to come back from that. Also I regularly have long periods due to long-term illness where I can't make much progress (luckily I'm part-time) and have to pick things up again.

My best tip for restarting effectively is to make a list of things to be done, both big and small, and start picking off the ones that look most appealing. Take it carefully, but if you start to make small progress it will grow and then you'll be able to do more and more as time goes on.

And stop worrying so much! It doesn't help. And do speak to your supervisor about things.

Try googling for the research councils in turn plus "college fees". Looks like they will cover it. My funding council, AHRC, certainly does. After my supervisor moved I considered transferring my PhD to Oxford, long-distance, and that was one of the essential things I checked.

I left a science PhD over a decade ago. In 2003 I started a humanities one, part-time this time. On my humanities funding application form I was asked to state if I had received prior PhD funding before. I filled out the details for the first degree. I suspect that if the disciplines were the same I would have had virtually no chance of getting funding a second time. Fortunately because it was a totally different subject area I was considered and was successful.

I've got a slightly different perspective on this, because 1 year into my part-time PhD I found that another new student at a nearby (!) university had started an extremely closely related PhD. It sent me into a huge panic, and the other student ditto. But we were able to meet and agree the differences and that our research was complementary rather than competing. Having said that, by the time he submitted he'd moved more towards mine, which is annoying. But I'm playing up the strengths and individuality of my own research. My supervisor always advised me that even if there was a much closer overlap it would be fine: independent analysis of the same thing is perfectly acceptable. And it's not *that* close!

I'm in a similar position to Smilodon: only 5 miles away in my case, but due to progressive long-term illness I'm largely housebound and virtually never make it into the uni. Plus on top of that my main supervisor moved 500 miles away 2 years ago. For a year afterwards I had virtually no support at all, during a difficult writing-up phase. Now I have another member of staff who's helping me a lot, but I only meet up very occasionally.

As a part-time PhD-er I expected to be isolated, but I wasn't so restricted when I started the PhD and am not sure I would have started if I'd known how tough things would get. My department has an online bulletin board for students to use, but virtually none of the postgraduate students use it - just the genuine distance-learners and me. It's very difficult not being able to talk to others about this, or to share experiences. I find this board a godsend: helping to put my problems into perspective (I'm not alone!), and coming up with solutions/tips/advice.

Huge congratulations!

Glad to help, and good luck with the continuing writing. I can totally understand your worry though - I was very worried about this at one point, especially after my first chapter came in at 6500 words. Fortunately hindsight is a marvellous thing - if only I could have zipped back in time to tell myself not to worry then!

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I'd be hesitant about worrrying too much about word count until you've written far more chapters. Even then there's time to fix things. I'm a humanities student, aiming at a 7 chapter thesis, and I think I'm going to come in at just over 70,000 words. 80,000 is my minimum. I can see how I can fix that, and will seek advice from my supervisors. Basically though I need to get to the end of that full draft before worrying unduly. Even then the shortfall can be fixed.

But don't be too alarmed after two chapters. After two chapters I thought I'd come vastly short. Some later chapters were much longer and the shortfall has turned out to be much less. I've now written chapters 1-6 (though all need to be rewritten to an extent) and am now tackling the conclusions chapter 7.

I've been working on/off over Christmas - having agreed a looming full draft deadline with my supervisor just over a week ago I'm feeling the tension! Fortunately most chapters are written, though they need to be rewritten. The final conclusions chapter isn't done though and that's the toughest one to get right. Mulling over it.

It probably does vary by subject (I'm humanities) but I've been told by one of my supervisors that if something is important enough to be said/examined it should go in the main text, not footnotes or anywhere else. I'm basically assuming my examiners just read that, with a glimpse at the footnotes to check referencing/citations are ok.

I wouldn't be so sure about that. I took a 5 month medical break in 2007 and within days of starting it my library record was changed to say I couldn't borrow anything due to being on a study break. Luckily I didn't need the library access during that period and was taking a (very much needed) total break. Email access etc. continued - it does at my university during study breaks. But no library borrowing, though I could have wandered in there to look in person.

Practice is the key tip from me too: go over the presentation in advance (speaking out loud) to check it for timing, flow, things that just don't work, might get you in trouble etc. However my other big tip is to think that it will all be over in so many hours: gives me an end in sight to the terror and helps me get through it. I haven't had big problems with presentation fear for years, but I did early on. I still practice talks like mad though.

I've just finished 2 more chapters and sent them off to my supervisors for feedback. That takes me to chapters 1-6 written with only chapter 7 (conclusions) and bibliography to do. Going to take a short break before revising the other 4 chapters (previously got feedback on them) and thinking about how to tackle 7. But I'm not rushing this: I'm seriously ill long-term so can't push too hard, plus I'm part-time so years/deadlines are a bit different.

I already had the idea before I started - it developed during RA work that I did the year before (not my Masters which was totally different) so I had a very clear idea when I started, plus I had to specify it on my PhD application form. I wouldn't be worried if I was you yet though. You have plenty of time to refine your idea. I just hit the ground running!

Congratulations Armendaf and Lara! Delighted to hear that you both submitted successfully. All the best for the vivas ahead.