One Thesis (draft) in One Month!

[Gelquie]

(Okay, probably not a complete one, I'm still doing analysis. But!)

So, I will be doing a NaNo this year! ...But. It won't be for a novel.

See, I really need to complete my thesis really soon, and I'm not nearly at the point I should be. And look what came up! A writing month!!

So that's what I'm gonna be doing. I'm going to write as much as my thesis as I feasibly can!

The big thing I'm struggling with right now is planning my NaNo, and how to pace myself, since this isn't really so much of a word count thing. I'm also doing readings, research, describing what I'm doing, formatting, blah blah. I think I should have a word count goal, but I don't think I should pace myself via word count.

To summarize how the process will go...

-Literature Review (Reading and Writing and Citing)
-Methods (writing what I do; actually I've already made good progress on this)
-Results (Displaying my Plots, Discussing what I found, Making Comparisons, Formatting)
-Discussion (discussing what I found; Results precludes this section)
-Conclusion (literally the last thing I should do)
-References (Citing)

So basically...
-Reading
-Writing
-Citing (because there are always gonna be technical difficulties with this
-Plotting
-Formatting (mostly images and tables and citations and such)

I need to brainstorm how to set goals here besides word count. I'm thinking amount of articles to read/take notes from/cite, putting up plots, figuring out formatting, and... yeah. So probably mostly word count, articleing, plotting, and formatting. So maybe...

1000 word count
1 Article
1 Plot
1 Formatting Thing

Pick 2?
(Or 1 if it's a particularly blargh day?)

I'm open to other ideas on how to pace this; let me know if you have any!

[Gelquie]

I've run into a lot of setbacks, usually with my procrastination and motivation and "oh, but something came up, as did 100 other things I need to resolve right now and oh wait this may be a problem on me". But after a lot of false starts, I actually made some measurable progress today!

As of today, I am reaching... almost 1000 words of new content. xD It goes really slowly, it turns out, because I'm not just writing. Even if I dedicate the day to writing, I also need to research and cite as I go, or maybe I need to look into something further, or I go "ooh look, an interesting thing!" that makes me break out my programs, or I just do programming, and. Yeah, 1000 words a day I think is too lofty a goal for this.
I'm gonna try for 500 words a day instead.

Plus side is, if I do focus on writing, usually I get a lot of other things done at the same time, due to the interconnectivity of research and writing as I outlined above. In fact, most things coincide with writing, and I can sort of figure it out as I go. This'll get edited to death anyway; all thesises do.

I also sent a draft of my bare-bones Methods section to my advisor for input. Haven't gotten feedback yet, but that's because it's the weekend. Besides, I have other things to work on in the meantime.

I was also advised that I actually should work on my Result section as I go, and not just wait until I'm done with my introduction, because I do have stuff I can put in my Results right now! And doing that is ultimately what gave me the motivation juice to work on my Introduction! Plus side is, if I hit a road block on one section, and I can figure out why, I can bounce to the other reason. Like maybe I need to flesh out a section more, or maybe I need to look something up, or maybe I need to check my citations, or maybe I need to programmatically test something.

Interconnectivity!
Seeing the thesis not as a Huge Chunk, but as a Web, actually helps me a lot! And that basically sums up science too; it's a web of information that is so incredibly interconnected! So you just pick a line and follow it along, and if you're on the wrong track, you figure out why and flesh something out, or figure out a new line.

So much of my problems with things can be resolved with good perspective on a thought. So maybe thinking of it as a web will help me! We'll see over time.

I'll also try to be better about letting myself get to things and not get distracted because things keep coming up. I have a habit of wanting to resolve things quickly as they come up so they don't sit in my mind poking me repeatedly, but then I have a lot of things! And some of these things are less important, and can be resolved later! So... I don't know the word for what I need to just get myself to sit down and do the task and worry about other things later, but that's what I need.

(Though I do feel better when I just do those dishes right away so that I know they're drying and thus ready for next time I cook. But that doesn't take more than 20 minutes at worst.)

[Gelquie]

No, I didn't forget!

I even finished the Methods section of my thesis, or at least as much as I could. I sent the draft to my advisor and have since implemented edits and figured out what else I need to put in. So that's in progress!

I also started some other first drafts, and while I could be a lot farther, it's nice to have a lot of baselines in place.

So yeah, not quite 1st draft in one month, but it did help a lot.

Unfortunately, my brain decided to be broken partway through and I lost a lot of momentum.

But I'm keeping this up, and will keep writing.
I may not have done a full draft in one month, but I got a significant chapter done in one month, and having that helps a lot.