The Lonely Task of Writing

By definition, writing is a task done alone, with minimal distractions. Such an environment can be difficult to find in a busy household particularly with small children. You will need to find a way to deal with these needs. Some suggestions from other students: find a space that allows you to close the door- even a large closet will work. Recruit or hire a babysitter for a couple of hours to allow you some writing time. Work early in the morning or late at night. Write during your lunch hour. Do you have other ideas? We would love to hear them.

One way to structure your time, is to set goals for yourself for each week of the quarter, leading to a final goal for the term. Hold yourself to these goals. You can even break it down further and set a goal for each day. Consider, if you wrote just one page per day, in a quarter you would have written 90 pages! Some people set an alarm; they must sit and work on the paper for an hour, until the alarm goes off. The important thing is to develop some writing habits, making your dissertation a priority. Otherwise, it is just too easy to let the rest of your life take precedence. Your paper is not going to shout at you to write it. Your chair will probably not nag you. You have to make the decision that receiving your degree is important enough to set time aside every day to write.

It is a great idea to form a dissertation support group; members could be other students at Walden, students in your dissertation class, or others you know who are in the dissertation process. Commit to supporting each other regularly, sharing your frustrations, and your joys. People who have not gone through the process, however well meaning, do not really understand the stress involved. Get some support!

Next time we will consider pain vs. passion in dissertation writing. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu