HI - I am currently in my third year of phd - with 8 months of funding left. Finding it so hard to motivate myself to write. Should i feel guilty if I dont get something on paper each day....wake up in the mornings and find it so hard to be energised and productive....cant wait to finish but dont feel like that day will ever come! :-s

======= Date Modified 20 Jan 2012 10:14:08 =======
Writing can be overwhelming but you need to do it, deep down you know that you'll have to do it sooner or later and it would benefit you more to knuckle down to it now, while money is coming in. If you haven't already, make a plan with some flexibility built in and monitor the plan everyday. I tried to write about 500 words a day, as realistically I know I can't write with speed but I was producing quality work. This meant that I was writing about 15,000 words a month (usually at a minimum) and so a thesis could be produced in 6 months. I found it extremely difficult starting the write up but once I started and was able to see the word count mounting it made writing much, much easier. For me taking small steps worked and so try to find out what will work for you.

Good luck!

it is defintiely overwhelming - not so much the actual writing of words but trying to get the quality that I know I will need o pass a phd. 500 words a days doesnt sound so bad- and that would be awesome if it could be finished in 6 months. how much time realistically do u need to make revisions and polish off the work?

I was very fortunate because I had no significant revisions to make to my writing and my planning was such that it didn't require much polishing either. What I mean is as I was writing, the thesis generally fell into place. Having said that, I would not be convinced my supervisors read the thesis in full (nearly 100% confident they didn't) which would help explain the minimal revisions prior to viva. The examiners gave much, much more feedback after viva than my supervisors did over the course of the three years but I was given minor corrections, which mainly revolved around the results chapter but included some extra writing but no rewriting.

There's a very good thread on this forum, the one goal thread, why not contribute to it as you'll be able to help keep others motivated and they be able to do the same for you.

i've been writing throughout so far which, for anyone else reading this who is starting, works!!
however, as i am a writer in general (aside from phd) i totally understand the lack of motivation- it comes about in spells for me. often, i find the best way to do it is give myself a finite holiday (like three days of doing absolutely nothing but eating and xbox and maybe the gym...then i sit down and start something...as with delta, i agree, once u see the first few hundred or thousand words mounting up, u'l start to feel much better