This is better than I thought

Obviously, I like writing. If I didn't like writing, I certainly wouldn't keep a blog. But I thought that "writing I like doing" and "writing you do under duress to get a PhD" would not overlap. This is in part because my efforts to write Manuscript 1 and get Dr. Boss to read it were so frustrating. Yet here I am, happily writing my dissertation. Sure, my interest/motivation ebbs and flows a bit, but I haven't hit any major blocks yet.

This is probably because there are so many different things to do, update references, make figures (find figures), create tables, read loads, about LOADS of really different but interesting things... all of which are at this stage equally productive.

I couldn't sleep this morning (it is so humid out, my sleepy brain thought we were at a lake or something), so I popped up around 5:30 this morning to write in a bit more about how cool Table #2 is, and add in that my perspective on this whole field is pretty unique... and then I added some figures to the second chapter (which I mostly loaded yesterday- this is manuscript 1 + whatever negative results I feel like adding).

There are also way more read-outs for progress than I would have thought, and it is really gratifying. For example, this morning I crossed the 100 page mark (23 of which are references- and yes it's double spaced, but still!). I am at 257 references, which makes me feel well read. I've got 10 figures and 5 tables. I want to make progress bars for all these things! I also think I am about at the halfway mark of getting it written, which is actually a bit ahead of schedule. That makes me feel really good about it. Today I am going back to work, to split my time between some experiments and making some figures. With luck this experiment will be done next week (and then it will go into my manuscript AND dissertation- more progress!), and I can focus full time on writing really.