This may be a stupid question... In the process of working on your research project, when do you start writing up? Suppose you have 3-4 slightly different chapters. Do you collect results on ALL of them and THEN start writing? In my case, after finding some initial piece of results, I feel the need to write and interpret them first and then move on to the next part. Did you write drafts for each chapter in the process of doing your PhD or did writing up started only having gotten all the results in your hand?

I'm only starting my PhD but I plan to write as full a draft as possible for each chapter as I go along and then move on to the next. However I'm expecting to be continually going back to revise and review each chapter as I uncover more essential information (!). I'm doing a humanities PhD so it might be different for PhDers in other disciplines.

Thank you, PeteManic! Sounds very reasonable. I think I will try to follow your strategy. From my experience sometimes I end up going back and revising, redoing the very first small part over and over again and stuck there without moving forward at all. I've decided to finish the first part, write the first draft, note the details to review and just move on to the next sections. Otherwise, it's so easy to get stuck looking for perfection and at the end of the year with very little done.

That is exactly what happened to me in my MA diss. I got into a rut of writing and rewriting certain sections and basically leaving myself with very little time to finish. My plan is to just write and worry about stylistic issues later on when I revise the review each section. Words on the page is my mantra, words on the page!

thanks for posting this. i needed to hear this.

Write as you go, otherwise it's too daunting if you only start once you've collected all the results. I've written chapters, then not looked at them for a couple of years as I've been writing other material, and that's fine. Once I have a first draft of everything, will go back and update and rewrite. Don't get stuck on changing things you've written - keep writing new material.

Thank you, Sue! Wish you a smooth enjoyable writing.:-) I know it might be hard at the beginning, but as you go, you should start getting more involved and won't notice how you're close to finish. So, hang on, you are almost there (up)

You SHOULD write as you go. Since I'm in write-up, wish I could have done more but it was difficult with data collection being so tiresome :-s. You can always start by lit.review and methods sections. doesn't matter if they need revising at the end but having something on paper is so so important. At least on note form or rough sections of things you have done.:-)