While, in the movie, Forrester is talking about writing novels, this advice applies just as directly to writing the dissertation. You see, so often, ABD’s find it difficult to generate the first draft because they don’t realize they need to write with their hearts.

I advise all my clients to write a messy first draft, one filled with passion and developing thoughts and enthusiasm. Then I suggest they take this first draft and begin to refine it into something more scholarly and complete.

The clients who listen to me on this actually draft more quickly and enjoy their writing process much more. Interesting, huh?

The reason this works is because you need to know what you want to say- what is most important to highlight, what resonates most, in order to create powerful and persuasive writing. Too often, dissertation writers don’t even know what they *really* think, and try to sound authoritative. Then, to make matters worse, they take this disconnected writing and try to polish it up, becoming more and more disengaged with each attempt.

It’s no wonder that, in this way of doing things, so many of you feel out of touch with the “juice” of your topic- what drew you to study it or learn more about it in the first place.

The best first drafts are written quickly, and are free-flowing. Writing is not revising. Writing is not editing. You know you are writing when the words move smoothly out of you, and where there are no long pauses or feelings of grasping for the right word to say. When you see yourself typing, stopping, deleting, typing again, pausing— these are all signs that you’re trying to edit before you’ve written.

Writing must always precede editing. Mix the two, and you have poor writing and poor editing, both of which take up about twice as much time as needed.

So, to answer the question, where do first drafts come from?

They come from a solid background in the topic- where you’ve read enough to feel you understand at least the basic outline and foundation of your topic. They come from allowing yourself the space to write, to let words flow freely from you, even if you don’t know exactly where you’re going (yet) and you’re pretty sure some of what you’re writing belongs somewhere else.

Once you’ve written about a topic as fully as you can, and as rapidly as you can, then it’s time to take a break for a day or two, and start the process of editing and revising.

First drafts come from the heart. Second drafts come from the head.

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One theme which keeps showing up over the past few weeks is that of self belief. And, more specifically, how self belief changes everything. Many times, clients come to work with me after they have been stuck spinning their wheels for months or years. Routinely, they start coaching with a lot of self doubt, and disbelief. Their experience of themselves is that they are somehow failing, or can’t trust themselves, or are procrastinators, or otherwise somehow deficient or defective, mainly because they have tried to reach certain dissertation goals, and just never quite do it.

It’s pretty similar to how people feel when they have tried to lose weight, or stop smoking, or to change their eating habits. They have a lot of internal self talk that says they SHOULD, but their continuous experience is that somehow they just AREN’T.

After a while, repeated experiences of these kinds of small failures seriously begins to erode your self confidence and your belief in yourself. You can’t seem to stop setting goals, but even as you do, you kind of know you aren’t likely to reach them.

So what I’ve learned from working with many different clients over the past 8 years is that the first step of a successful dissertation experience is built on the foundation of positive self belief. You can only transform your negative dissertation experience from what you have been living to something new if you adjust your feelings, and thoughts, and, eventually, your behaviors.

It’s similar to the idea of the famous Albert Einstein quote: “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” Yet so many dissertation writers keep running over the same old groove of same old thoughts, feelings, and actions- even when they haven’t worked in a long time (and maybe never did.)

Too often, people try to do differently before they feel differently. But if you feel you can’t, that negative self belief will always be stronger than any other flurry of actions you do.

If you want to effect a true change in your dissertation process, you need to stop letting your anxiety drive you. You need to find ways to set small goals- ones that you know you will reach- AND THEN YOU ACTUALLY NEED TO REACH THEM.

Planning without action is purposeless.

It isn’t all that exciting, but the fact is, we believe in ourselves more easily when we do what we say we will do. If you constantly let yourself down in this way, your self belief will be low. But if you start to shift the balance slowly, and regain confidence in yourself as a person of discipline and integrity, you can build self belief and self confidence.

And that changes everything.

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