Today marks the day I have completed 40 thesis tasks.

I have to say, although sometimes I feel down or overwhelmed by this project, and sometimes I just don’t know what to say, daily writing is becoming a habit and it is becoming easier.

Take Tuesday. On Monday I read this. Yikes! Intimidating! Tuesday I felt hopeless about putting together a workable proposal by October 1st. I hemmed and hawed for most of the morning, then called a friend and told her I was giving up, and since I was I might as well enjoy it, was she doing anything? And she told me she was taking her kids swimming in half an hour. Okay, I said, I’ll work for half an hour.

Somehow, having decided to do no work and then having that half hour window to fill was just what I needed. I did a little bit of editing. I hammered together two separate things that I thought would never go together, and they kind of worked. I felt better. Then I went swimming.

On Wednesday, I got over the hump of feeling intimidated and things really started to come together. Thursday was a bit of a rough start again, but I find myself wanting to get a little writing out everyday, which is like a gift. It makes everything so much easier to deal with. And that is the result, totally, of doing a little bit every day. It’s less intimidating, less frustrating, and one’s mind gets accustomed to maintaining a flow from day to day.

Something that I have found very helpful is closing out each day’s work with a bit of a question for the next day’s freewrite. A question or topic makes the freewrite more focused; setting that question or topic the day before gets your subconscious mind working on it so there’s something there to write.

Filed under: writing thesis