PeChaWriMo(s), part II

[unsymbolic]

Well, last time I did this, it did help keep me focused, in a way (even if I did wildly miss my target completion date). I think it helps to have some sort of external accountability, and in some small way, updating the progress bar gives me a sense of that.

So. This is the home stretch. The final chapter of my thesis. If I can handle it right, this chapter won't even be followed by a conclusion (though it's possible that it might be followed by a very brief coda, if I end up feeling one is needed; I'll also still have my introduction to write).

In my initial timeline, I'd planned to have this completed last month. Now, I want a draft of it completed by the end of August at the latest, so that's two months of writing, which comes out to 40 working days (taking weekends off). I am planning for it to be a little longer than I planned for the last chapter (though shorter than the last chapter turned out to be). At 12K words, I need to be writing at least 300 words each day. For calculation purposes, we'll say that I started on July 1.

6237 / 12000 words. 52% done!
15 August

5635 / 12000 words. 47% done!
12 August

4107 / 12000 words. 34% done!
30 July (basically done with part 1 of the chapter, save for the transition into part 2)

3644 / 12000 words. 30% done!
29 July

3250 / 12000 words. 27% done!
(26 July - now counting sequentially!)

1963 / 12000 words. 16% done!
(17 July - I'm cheating the word count a bit since I'm including material that's written out of sequence. If I was counting only the portions that flow without big gaps in between I'd be around 1300.)

1566 / 12000 words. 13% done!
(July 16 - had a few days of not writing while motoring through a book I had to get read, but still displeased with progress)

597 / 12000 words. 5% done!
(1 July)

Comments

[mudousetsuna]

Wow, good luck! I would be intimidated by writing just a couple of pages! D:

[unsymbolic]

Thanks! :)

Overall so far, I've written about 76,500 words across the previous four chapters. So by the end of this one, I should be at around 84,500, or about 340 pages(!!). It does feel like quite a lot when you think of it like that, but since I've never printed it all out together, I have no visual/material reference for it all.

I have a max word limit of 100,000 words, so by the time I write my intro and clean up all my foot notes, I'm sure I'll be relatively close to that.

[mudousetsuna]

@_@ I don't even know how you keep it all coherent. That's awesome!

[pseudorca]

Holy crap! Best of luck. I envy your ability to commit to such structure!

[unsymbolic]

Thank you! Though I must admit that my ability to commit to the structure is directly related to the structure's external imposition by the college. The deadline for submission by the end of this year is starting to loom very large indeed.

[freya]

Good luck! I'm not writing yet, but have been wondering about doing something thesis related for Nanowrimo, as, god, I just need to write something.

(frayer on LJ)

[unsymbolic]

Laaaaaaate reply is late. orz

But hello! It's really good to hear from you! I see you post on FB every now and again.

Am I right in thinking that you're in a hard science kind of field? (From what I know, folks in the hard sciences tend to start writing later than folks in arts/humanities--different disciplinary expectations). Any way you cut it though, I do feel like some kind of writing schedule helps...but then I might be quite deadline motivated.

[freya]

I occasionally see you go floating by in the stalker bar at the side, but yes! It's great whenever you pop up on my feed. :D

Yep. Am a cellular neuroscientist, which is definitely an experiment and then write up the experiments PhD. It's why I can be at the end of my third year and have quite literally no words of my thesis. I definitely need to get a crack on.

Are you in London these days, or are you long-distancing?

[unsymbolic]

I have no doubt you're in good and plentiful company with your writing progress--a friend of ours just finished his PhD in microbiology a few months ago, and he'd not written anything until a few months before his submission date! (Not that I want to encourage procrastination, of course.)

I am indeed in London, but south of the river near Greenwich. It's lovely and quiet and very green so I seldom need to go into central since I can happily work on my writing from home. What about yourself? You're not London-based and I just missed it, are you?

[freya]

Not London, but I am within shouting distance. I'm in Brighton. It's within day tripping distance, I ssometimes do. I'm in London for Frightfest on the 24th of August, which means I have nothing to do on Sunday 25th, except head back to Brighton, which I can postpone if you want to get coffee...?

[kabal42]

Wow, you're really on the home stretch now! Good luck with the rest :)

[unsymbolic]

Thanks (belatedly)!

It's rather nerve wracking thinking how soon the whole thing will be coming due by lol.

[kabal42]

It is, but also really awesome :)