Hi Faithful Readers! After a brief hiatus during which time yours truly took on a new academic position at a university that rhymes with my favorite leafy green vegetable -- not chard, but kale -- Ask the Dissertation Diva is back in blogging action! Cruise throught the archives. Ask new questions. Post comments. And write write write!
Dear Dissertation Diva,
You know that hot dog eating contest on Coney Island? Whenever I open the file of the final chapter of my dissertation, I feel like I've eaten 180 hot dogs. I can't stand to even see one more hot dog. The whole dissertation enterprise currently feels like a giant block. Writing is like excreting blood drop by drop. I'll just stare at the page and can't move forward. It has been like that for two weeks. I've gotten through writing block in the past, but as I get closer to the final deadline, I am deadeningly bored and tired from the process. It's like quicksand. How do I gather the superhuman strength to push out a dozen more pages of complete sentences?
Signed,
Mired and Tired
Dear Mired,
Are you sure you're not Sarah Bernhardt? This is 11th hour high drama! Excreting blood drop by drop? Gothic!
Please take my advice and take a break lest you get anemic from blood loss. A full day to frolic and have fun will not only replenish your iron reserves, but break the monotony of your pattern and shock your system back into writing. Imagine how precious a full day of writing really is when you have only a few weeks to go! A couple of hours of mindless holiday window shopping in the cold should click something on in your brain that says, "I am just a dozen pages and some breezy edits away from being Dr. Mired. I must re-energize for the final push."
Besides taking a daylong break: If you find yourself zoning out in front of the page or screen again, stand up, stretch, jump up and down, do jumping jacks -- physical activity will reboot your writing brain.
Dissertation Diva
Thank you to all the brilliant Stanford PhD candidates who attended my workshop, "Dissertation Success: Practical and Holistic Strategies," yesterday. Amazing roomful of scientists and scholars. I am honored to work with you! Much gratitude to the Stanford University Women's Community Center for organizing this annual dissertation workshop for women-identified grad students. I am truly impressed by the range and innovative thinking of emerging scholarship.
I was happy to see participants in the four-hour workshop tapping away at their computer keyboards, writing up their dissertation arguments, freewriting on challenging questions coming up in their thinking, and sharing strategies for writing, life/work balance, committee management, and organization.
The best question I asked was: "Why are you writing this dissertation?" This simple yet profound query allowed participants to connect with their core passion for the topic, cutting through the daily grind.
Remember to take healthy breaks, connect with peers and colleagues, and keep going!
Dissertation Diva
AAUW (formerly known as he American Association of University Women) offers Dissertation Fellowships.
From their website:
"Dissertation Fellowships are available to women who will complete their dissertation writing between April 15, 2011 and June 30, 2011. Degree conferral must be between April 1 and September 15, 2011. To qualify, applicants must have completed all course work, passed all required preliminary examinations, and received approval for their research proposal or plan by Nov. 15, 2009. Students holding any fellowship for writing a dissertation in the year prior to the AAUW fellowship year are not eligible. Open to applicants in all fields of study. Scholars engaged in science, technology, engineering and math and also researching gender issues are especially encouraged to apply."
Good luck!
Dissertation Diva