dispair

[truepenny]

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed right at the moment.

I look at my nice list of things I need to write into the dissertation (like, you know, my argument), and my brain just locks. It says it can't. It says it doesn't know the words. It says it doesn't understand.

I know it's lying to me, but there it is, hiding underneath the bed and refusing to come out.

I have nineteen days. This is Not Good.

Comments

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

and yet you will prevail.

Just think of it as arewriting a second draft to layer in foreshadowing and so forth. I know you can do that.

[marith.livejournal.com]

Bleah. Mental tetanus is the pits. :/

Give yourself permission to not think about the dissertation for one whole day? Spend it coddling your inner porpentine, with a long backrub from someone and whatever else recharges truepennies. Do nothing useful whatsoever.

The next day, lay a trail of unagi nigiri or chocolate truffles from the edge of the bed to the computer. Maybe your brain will come creeping out.

Works for me sometimes, anyway. Good luck! Ganbatte!

[skalja.livejournal.com]

*hugs* I've been there. Take it one step at a time, if you can. If you can't, lie to your brain and tell it there's only one thing, do that, and then tell it there's one thing more, then do that...

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've been here before, too. It's just that the scenery doesn't get any better with each repeated visit. *sigh*

Thank you. It helps very much to be reminded that there are people out there who have been where I am and have gotten past it.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

How come I can never think of the good suggestions like everybody else?

Not for motivation, but just because: I'll write some (more) angst for you! George angst, even! You can look forward to it.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Hey, bribery is a very valid motivational technique! The promise of George-angst got a page and a half out of me, because I have enough Puritan in me to induce guilt at the thought of eating dessert without finishing the broccoli, so to speak.

Now, mind you, it's crap. But at least it's there. I am, I think, having a little trouble letting go of the need for every word to be Perfect.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Luckily for you, I even already know what the George-angst is. I've been saving it for the end section. Now I just have to write it...

[elynross.livejournal.com]

I don't know that it will help at all, but the only way I made it through my thesis was to look at it as a series of short pieces. Instead of a list, would it help at all to write each bit on a separate note, and remind yourself that when you pull that first note, you only have to do that part, right then? If you're then inspired to do more, great, but you only have to do that one, then you can do something fun for a bit. Not long, of course, being on the deadline, but I find that looking at the WHOLE THING I have to accomplish is more likely to send me into an autistic, solipsistic state than to make me productive.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

I am all about the discrete packets of writing. The trouble was with looking at the list and having a little voice in my head wail, But I can't write ANY of these! When they handed us the Prelims questions, I had this exact same thing happen. That was a baaaad moment, way worse than this.

And, in fact, puts this little trauma in perspective. Ha.

If I even tried to envision the whole dis. at once, I'd just go tharn, like the rabbits in Watership Down. This is going to cause problems when I have to write the conclusion, but I figure I can burn that bridge when I get there.

[elynross.livejournal.com]

I figured as much, to even get as far as you have. *g* I wish you much inspiration soonish.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I beat my head against the brick wall for a bit, and this time it fell down. So imagine me picking my way through the rubble. :)

[ex-ajhalluk585.livejournal.com]

Remeber where your towel is.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

*snrch*

Words to live by. Thank you!

[oursin.livejournal.com]

This may not work for you, but what sometimes breaks the log-jam for me is doing something really tedious but necessary to the project (like getting all footnote references consistent, or word by word editing to reduce length) which doesn't engage the higher mental faculties.

[pameladean]

I just wished to proffer sympathy. I get to that point at least once during the writing of every single novel.

What I do is akin to what oursin suggests -- I do very small tweaky stuff around the edges until I am no longer completely freaked out by the mere existence of the work in progress.

Pamela

[kate_nepveu]

I like searching for overuse of transitional words ("accordingly" seem to be popular these days, but it used to be "therefore" and "however"). But citation formats is always a good one.

[libskrat]

If it helps at all, I looked at a blank screen today for a fiddly little 200-word book review and totally froze. (Um, might have something to do with this being the first vaguely substantive assignment of my return to grad school. Pure nerves.)

But I did it anyway. It's not deathless prose, but it didn't have to be.

Neither does yours. Believe it or not.

[marypcb.livejournal.com]

lie right back to your brain; tell it it's not important, it doesn't matter, there's no hurry - but it *would* be fun and satisfying and then there would be Chocolate...

[louisedunn.livejournal.com]

I like this solution! And not just because it ends with chocolate. :)

It only really works for me if I have a Worse Task sitting out there somewhere, waiting to be done. "Oh, no, this is *much* more fun than bathing the cat..."

[marypcb.livejournal.com]

ah now; I don't know from which writer I first heard it but I now call all that furious displacement activity - from lazy web browsing (research!) to brisk house cleaning to re-ordering every book in the house the first month I worked from home as Cat Hoovering. But I do have a friend who is allergic to his cat and washes it with gunk to remove the Fel1D protein, which I refer to as cat washing up liquid; and I know the instructions for washing the cat in full body armour too ;-)

and for balance, this one also ends with
Chocolate

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

I'm very familiar with Brain-Lock. My sympathies. It helps me to think small and do the least little things I can get myself to admit that I can do.

[calanthe-b.livejournal.com]

~hugs~ There's really nothing more I can say. I know so well what you mean...and now you know why I call my thesis Gollum!

~tempts truepenny's brain with nice fisshes~

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I could bribe you with some space opera thingy. But I'd be afraid it would be a distraction rather than a bribe.

One step at a time on the road to Dis, Sisyphus.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Yes, space opera thingy would definitely be a distraction. A good and exciting distraction, mind you, but possibly not what I should be indulging myself with just at this moment.

But thank you. :)

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

It could be worse. You could be looking for an apartment in New York.

*drags apartment-hunting obsession into a small dark closet and shuts the door on its protests*

I mean, you have my sympathies. I'm sure you'll get through it. Possibly even with a mention of *Ginger Snaps* in the conclusion.

[heresluck]

You think *you're* overwhelmed? I've got the whole thing in a giant stack on the kitchen table, looming ominously over my poor defenseless tomatoes.

I should be finished reading by Friday night. And then I'll lure your brain out from under the bed with the promise of apricot twists, and we'll tackle the thinking part. And then you'll wrestle the writing part into a corner and kick its ass. No worries.

[calanthe-b.livejournal.com]

By the way--I read your post to my supervisor, and she burst out laughing and asked could she have it to make a door sign out of please? ~g~

She knows the feeling too.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Of course she can.

My ego and I say thank you. :)

[calanthe-b.livejournal.com]

Thanks. And you're welcome!