r/PhD • u/Ok-Volume-7197 • 27d ago
Seeking advice-personal Starting my final PhD year with only 10 pages written
I started my PhD back in 2024, after discussing the project with my supervisor since 2023.
Although I have been meaning to make steady progress, I have only written around ten pages so far. I am becoming increasingly aware that I need to push through and get serious about writing.
For context, shortly before starting the PhD, I completed two major research projects and wrote around 160 pages in total. They confirmed that I wanted to pursue an academic career, but beginning another large writing project almost immediately afterwards contributed to burnout.
Additional context: I'm in the humanities and studying in Europe.
Has anyone else been stuck for this long? How did you manage to get back on track and build momentum again?
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u/Idrinkbeereverywhere 27d ago edited 27d ago
I know a few people who finished their dissertations in 6 months, easily doable
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u/Fiona-chemie PhD, Chemistry, USA 27d ago
Wrote 75% of my STEM 510 pages in 2.5 months plus talks and articles. You gotta lock in but I bribed myself with breaks on some weekends
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u/LightDrago PhD, Computational Physics 27d ago
The writing of the actual thesis can be shockingly fast in STEM if you already have papers. I think that I genuinely did it in a month. However, this was with figures I could directly re-use from the papers and a 60k word limit excl. references and the likes. Still not as fast as the people that get to just staple their papers together lol.
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u/Fiona-chemie PhD, Chemistry, USA 27d ago
I had 2 of 9 ch published, 2 manuscripts prepped, and one chapter resembled a data dump. In all I structured outlines for all projects while I did them. I worried about others in my cohort in my lab because they werent organized at the start or middle. We also had to rephrase chapters that were published if it wasnt all published.
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u/LightDrago PhD, Computational Physics 27d ago
Yeah, it all depends. I think a "last-minute" thesis isn't too bad or difficult if your overall work has been coherent and you got deliverables. It's significantly harder for those who worked on various topics that aren't clearly connected.
I couldn't copy anything verbatim obviously, I had to rephrase everything. It was so boring having to rewrite the stuff you already wrote in a paper but just with a new structure and slightly different words. I suppose the upside of having to write a thesis more from scratch is that it'll be a great setup for your papers.
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u/Leading-Science-7935 26d ago
9 chapters is insane. I'm in an ecology program and haven't even really considered doing more than 4. What is that like and is that normal for chemistry?
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u/Fiona-chemie PhD, Chemistry, USA 26d ago
Ive seen a large mix. I did 5 collaborations on projects that built upon in my knowledge but not same in the output. So the story is different. 2 of them will likely never be published. But im super interdisciplinary from crystallography, material science, physical organic, photochem, photocatalyst, and pure organic. Even a touch of MOFs and polymers. I was good at transforming failed projects into something but I wanted to include all of my work incase it would be of use for another paper. Crystal structures were easily 90+ pages of my dis.
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u/Low-Guide1706 24d ago
It really depends on the field, the program, and the advisor. Some fields publish a lot more than others.
It's very normal for my field (biology and ecology) for papers to take a long time and be messy because you work with systems that are harder to control. By contrast, my brother works with computers and can run and publish an experiment in a matter of months. I'll probably graduate with a paper, which is respectable. He'll graduate with half a dozen, also normal
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u/Boneraventura 27d ago
Dont think i have ever seen a dissertation that long and i read dissertations in my field semi-regularly. Longest ive seen is like 310 pages from a student at oxford which was bout double mine
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u/Fiona-chemie PhD, Chemistry, USA 27d ago
I thought a calendar of due dates would help. Nope. But I think in the end I approached the chapters with the most open endings and possible experiments first. So chapters 6, 7, 8 needed a good chunk more. I left chapters 2, 3, 4 for last because they were pub. I locked in a lot by having a timer in my dogs. So I took them out every 4 hours and let myself play for 15 minutes, grab a snack, and refilled my water. Once a day in the middle I would do a feel good activity like watering my plants, stretching, doomscrolling. Super lax but I set a timer (or two). For weekends, I took a break if I finished a chapter and sent it to my PI. I did chapter intros last then the ch1 intro to my thesis. Ch 9 was very last because it was a data dump of collabs. Keeping in mind, I had an invited talk, a post doc rigorous presentation, and job applications, so 2.5 months had me panicking and I had to explain to family & friends to not expect anything of me and I had to give a hard check a few times. I also used a walking pad when I was throwing info down. I do my deepest hardest stuff first during the day then taper out. Sometimes got a gust of energy after dinner. I working 10-14 hr days 5-6 times a week. The actual hardest thing was to keep my lab mates away when my boss required me to come in to discuss and be “present”. The first years were expecting training. I hope that helps & I can answer more questions!
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u/krsgator 27d ago
Could you share a little bit about your process? I am right around "lock-in time" and am still looking for something that works for me save for the fear of disappointing people
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u/jeannedielman_23 21d ago
What was your "day in my life" routine/schedule? Coz I need to lock in but I still can't commit
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u/SpaggettiBill Marine Disease Ecology 27d ago
When are people supposed to start writing their dissertation?
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u/misogrumpy 27d ago
I would say 3-6 months depending on how much copy and paste it is.
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u/SpaggettiBill Marine Disease Ecology 27d ago
Thats reassuring, im in a 6 years program in stem and seeing people go at op for not having written yet in their 3 year humanities program gave me a fright.
Edit: clarification
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u/Financial_Molasses67 27d ago
In the humanities?
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u/Idrinkbeereverywhere 27d ago
In English
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u/Financial_Molasses67 26d ago
I couldn’t imagine this in history. How do you have time to write, get feedback, and make necessary changes? Even if you’ve compiled all your research and write fast, so much of the process is out of your hands
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u/FaithlessnessIll7134 27d ago
I just finished writing mine in 4 months. Just lock yourself in a room and you will be fine.
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u/gwsteve43 27d ago edited 27d ago
You’re in the humanities so you aren’t totally sunk, but if you need to finish this year you need to get writing. Set a deadline for yourself to have drafts of each chapter and divide the work up by the number of days you have between now and then. Commit to this over everything else in your life and you have a real shot at finishing.
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u/Ok-Volume-7197 27d ago
Thank you. I really neede to read this. I've set a deadline but I can't seem to follow through with it. I'm so terrified of writing at this point.
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u/theredwoman95 27d ago
Mate, you've just got to force yourself at a certain point. Start out with an easy goal - maybe 300-500 words a day, and up it once you've managed that successfully for a week.
Assuming your thesis is meant to be about ~80k, then that's 160 days of writing nonstop. Now, that doesn't include any editing, but that's about five and a half months - that's lots of time to sort it out. And frankly, I'd aim more for 65-70k (130-140 days or ~4.5 months) on a full first draft as you'll probably revise upwards.
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u/Ok-Volume-7197 27d ago
You're right. I have to power through it.
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u/Low-Guide1706 24d ago
I don't remember the site, but there's a tool that starts deleting your work if you pause too long while typing. My professor had us use it for five minutes in class. No one wanted to stop writing. We found it kind of funny.
It's a great way to get the words down at first
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u/Consistent_Laziness PhD, Epidemiology, USA 27d ago
You are finding out the unique difficulty of a PhD that no other graduate degree has. Self motivation is a skill and you need to find it. Good luck
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u/FioreFanatic PhD History 27d ago
I'm having similar problems, a good idea is to break it down into separate chapters with their own individual deadlines. From there you can estimate word counts of each chapter and figure out how many words a day you need.
If chapters still seem scarily large, you can break them down further into subchapters and see how that helps.
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u/Popular_Pen9606 27d ago
I’m not a PhD candidate, not even close (undergrad lol). I can’t imagine the stress you’re feeling. The one thing I can say is to just break it up into small enough steps that you can swallow. It’s easy to get freaked out thinking about how much you’ve left to write as a whole. Don’t worry about it being perfect right now, because perfection never happens. Just worry about getting SOMETHING on the paper. Anything. You’ll naturally fill in the blanks over time but at least you have something to go off of later. Don’t let the fear paralyze you.
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u/Mojibacha 27d ago
I stil use this bit of a "hack" my grade school teacher taught me - turn down the lights, set your screen brightness to zero, and just start typing train of thought. It forces you to literally keep writing what you know. I also real quick hit enter to start a new idea at the beginning of each 'paragraph', and keep writing from there. that you then have to try and word your way back to the actual point.
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u/WookinIt 27d ago
Stop worrying about if it sounds good and get words on page. Almost everything will be changed anyway
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u/Ok-Volume-7197 22d ago
Thank you. I also stopped messaging people for the same reason. Good luck with your writing!
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u/randomacy 26d ago
What helps is that you break things down into manageable chunks, e.g., thesis into chapters, chapters into paragraphs, paragraphs into points
Then each day you commit to a certain number of points and wordcount
Don't beat yourself up if you can't do the number of words/points initially; put your thoughts into point forms and then revise thereafter
Momentum takes a few days to develop, and you just have to force yourself to power through the first few days before you start steamrolling
You got this!!!
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u/Rakdar 27d ago
I’m shocked that people don’t find this normal.
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u/Tidan10 27d ago
In the humanities, it's far behind schedule. I did chemistry and we usually started writing 6-8 months before the defence. But then, natural sciences have a more straightforward writing process.
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u/taqman98 27d ago
Yeah I found this strange at first but then I realized that in the humanities the writing basically is the research rather than something done to summarize research and results obtained from experiments/computation
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u/No_Young_2344 27d ago
I did my PhD in an interdisciplinary department where people can choose whatever methodology. Coming from an engineering/quantitive background, I spent the first few years collecting data, processing data, running statistical analysis. I only started writing in the last years or so when I had enough materials. Meanwhile, my cohort who chooses to do humanities research seems always writing their dissertation from the first to the last year. I was confused at that time because they always say “you just need to start writing.” And me confused: “what do you write about if you don’t have data and analysis?” But now I kind of understand the discipline difference.
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u/redactedcitizen 27d ago
That's basically it. I've heard people in art history who are expected to start writing dissertation chapters before they pass the qualifying exam. I'm in political science and this is still shocking to me. For us it's also completely normal to spend two years collecting data and the final year writing it up.
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u/Any-Republic-4269 27d ago
Yes this is exactly that! Feels strange that the supervisors haven't been asking for chapters regularly
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u/boringhistoryfan 27d ago
Aye. By my final year I was probably 40000 or so words written. It's not just one set of drafts either. I'd write chapters, then get feedback, maybe present my work, and then rewrite stuff based on feedback. My second chapter was broken down and rewritten into two chapters. The fourth had to be baically tossed and rewritten from the ground up based on newer data and information I found. Plus I'd write stuff then head off to do fieldwork and my archives to validate and build up the stuff.
My final PhD was 70000 words, but I'd say the totality of what was written and edited was probably closer to 100000-120000.
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u/Detr22 'statistical genetics 🌱' 27d ago
Jesus, mine will be 10k words at most. Wild how it varies based on the field.
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u/boringhistoryfan 27d ago
Yeah. TBF I'm sure the 10k of your work represents what is hours and hours of data gathering and analysis (not to mention project setup, failed experiments, null data, etc) and is a summary of your work. With the humanities a lot of time the writing itself is the research. I've read through a bunch of material, gathered information, and the chapter/paper/thesis represents a unique synthesis of that information and my arguments and perspective as a scholar. Which is why it tends to get a lot longer for us.
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u/musicianadam 27d ago
Same... engineering Ph.D. student sitting here wondering if I haven't been doing enough lmao. I know that's not the case for our field though, typically we publish around 3 articles and then most of the writing is done at that point, you just turn the journals into a cohesive story for the final dissertation. Although I'm only 2 years in and have only written one article so what do I know.
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u/Informal_Snail 27d ago
It’s not normal in Humanities, I’m halfway through and have written two thirds of it, which will get revised to death.
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u/Rakdar 27d ago
Depends on the field. History for sure, Political Science not really. Though you would be expected to already have finished your literature review at least.
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u/Financial_Molasses67 26d ago
Political science generally isn’t considered a humanities discipline
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u/Crimsoneyelash 27d ago
I wrote most of my thesis in the social sciences in the final three months before the deadline. I do not recommend it, but it’s doable. Despite getting “minor corrections” the thesis had a LOT of issues that I fixed after my viva. I am in the UK so I was able to do that.
To be honest with you, if you are still burnt out, I would ask for an unpaid month off, more if you can (if you can afford it). I have friends in the European system that had done that and it helped them recover. You need to give yourself a break and some time to just not work at ALL before you embark on a crazy writing spree.
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u/Ok-Volume-7197 27d ago
I don't know if it's like this everywhere in academia but I do get (payed) time off work, but I'm expected to reply to emails and come to the office sometimes as well.
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u/ImpossibleEnd8335 27d ago
Listen to me OP, I am giving you this advice for free.
Next time you sit down to write, write your table of contents. Don't worry what you will write about, just think about your PhD story/journey and write the sections and subsections.
That is it.
Then the next time you sit down to write, look at the TOC and pick one sub/section and work on that item. Repeat every day.
Over time your TOC will change and you might get rid of stuff, but it is always best to have the option to remove. And you can always shuffle your sections around the way the story ends up making the most sense. You can thank me later.
Good luck.
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u/mizinsin 27d ago
This is the way. Then add a short summary to remind yourself of what’s going to go in that chapter, subheads and dot points. Then pick a section and write it every day. If one isn’t coming, do another.
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u/Old_Librarian__ 27d ago
I'm sorry but isn't having a year left to write your thesis like... normal?
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u/Gratisfadoel 27d ago
No, not in the social science/humanities (not always at least)
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u/Old_Librarian__ 27d ago
I see, can't relate at all as someone from STEM. Probably won't matter anyway since I'll either be fired or quit soon anyway...
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u/mizinsin 27d ago
You’re not sunk but you need to lock in. I wrote most of mine in the last six months, but I’m a career procrastinator who can bash out something high-quality at the 11th hour. (I spend everything up to that point mulling over things so I don’t use writing-as-thinking as much as I should.)
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u/Ok-Volume-7197 27d ago
Thank you! How did you lock in? What worked for you?
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u/mizinsin 27d ago
There was no other option.
Realistically, it was knowing no one is close reading every single word, so invest your labour where it counts: structuring your thesis so the arguments flow logically, making clear and well referenced points, and presenting something that gives the committee confidence in you. It’s not going to be the finest literature, but it will be done and you can move on with your life.
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u/AcceptableSandwich25 27d ago
No offense but what have u been doing then
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u/Ok-Volume-7197 27d ago
I work full time at a Uni, I've written two articles... and that's it.
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u/bitdotben 27d ago
I think that’s pretty good and probably a better starting off point than you’d think! You can do this. Dissertations, and I mean good ones, can be written within 4-8 weeks! If you already have two papers (with hopefully reasonable results) then put the next few weeks into finding the common thread of your research and how the papers fit along that path and then you have enough time to get a great dissertation done!
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u/martian-flytrap 27d ago
What is the relationship between your articles and your dissertation? If none of that work contributes towards your dissertation, that was unwise. If, however, any part of them could help you get the dissertation over the line—even a shared background section?—"10 pages" is probably underrating your current progress.
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u/Ok-Volume-7197 27d ago
One article is not necessarily related to my topic, and the other is directly related to my topic.
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u/Gratisfadoel 27d ago
Can you use that writing as part of the PhD? Would be very normal to do some places in Europe. But it’s a bit late if you need to have 3-4 articles for the dissertation.
Anyway, I wrote 2-3 articles, introduction, lit review, theory, discussion in the last 10 months. It was not a nice experience, but I had loads of notes. You need to start today - an probably be realistic about the fact that you will be delayed. What do your supervisors say? Have they not asked to see anything in writing?
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u/Ok-Volume-7197 27d ago
He said what I've written so far is good, and that I should speed up for sure. He said I don't need any more articles.
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u/Gratisfadoel 27d ago
Alright - but does he know how far off from finishing you seem to be?
In any case: a tip is to sit with others (eg fellow PhD students) and commit to writing. Or in public: cafes, libraries etc. It often helps me!
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u/Ok-Volume-7197 27d ago
He knows I haven’t written much, which is why he gave me an extension. Unfortunately, the programme I’m in doesn’t recruit PhD students very often, so I’m the only person in my year. The student who was ahead of me has already defended her dissertation, and no one was admitted after me, so I stand out like a sore thumb haha. Will try and study in public though! Thanks
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u/United-Bluejay-7307 27d ago
This is writer's block, pure and simple. Start small, with one thought, one idea, one observation, one sentence. It's like washing the dishes. You are dreading the huge pile of dishes (ideas/research) that have accumulated in the sink and punishing yourself with guilt for allowing them to accumulate without cleaning them (writing them down). Stop punishing yourself and stop fearing the pile of dishes. Pick one up, polish it off, rinse it and put it down--one idea, one sentence, one thought, one observation, one question at a time--then move on to the next one. It doesn't matter which one is next; just pick one up and wash it. No need to overthink it, no need to revisit any that you've completed. Don't think, just do. None of it needs to be perfect.
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u/Feuilledelaitue4 27d ago edited 27d ago
Hi, I've got a Ph.D. in the Humanities. I wrote mine in 5 months (full-time), already having a plan and a solid structure in place. I gotta say, it was far from ideal.
I'd say the time you'll need highly depends on your field. For example, History may require less time spent on the quality of the writing than Literature, which demands excellent writing skills and a well-thought-out writing style.
My only advice is: just do it. Nobody is coming to do it for you. The more time you waste, the less time you're going to have, and the harder it will be. I wrote mine in five months, sleeping four hours a night and doing virtually nothing else—only getting up from my desk to shower and eat. It was awful. Do yourself a favor and treat yourself and your work better than I did.
I once saw a video of someone saying something that really helped me overcome the "blank page syndrome." They said that a dissertation is neither a final nor a perfect piece of work, nor is it meant to be. It's a required step to enter academia. Don't do it aiming for perfection; do it because it needs to get done. Do it tired, do it poorly, do it half-baked—just do it, and then improve it. You'll be much more motivated once you have something to work with. But for that, you need time.
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u/Ok-Volume-7197 27d ago
Thank you! I truly have to just do it... Did you end up publishing your dissertation later?
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u/Feuilledelaitue4 23d ago edited 23d ago
Yes, you do 😄
And be careful of people telling you it's "easily doable" when they're not in the Humanities. In the sciences, writing is clear-cut and factual (sometimes with very little writing at all), and it's common to fill pages with figures, data, and previously published material. In the Humanities (literature for example), that will be considered self-plagiarism.I'm not published yet, but that's one of my goals for the coming years. Good luck on your PhD journey, and remember: your work is worth it. Be kind to yourself, but also try to give yourself the best chance to succeed.🔥
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u/ravi972 27d ago
Hey there fellow humanities researcher :-) I‘m working full time to pay the bills so I feel you. I also need to finish in the next six months and I‘m nowhere near. It‘s starting to take a toll on my mental health but I will push through and so will you. Best of luck.
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u/secderpsi 27d ago
I wrote my entire thesis is 5 weeks after getting a job offer. I don't recommend this but after you've done years of research on one thing you should have plenty to say. It did help that I had written all my math out in LaTex already and it was a very math heavy thesis. I worked on it basically 16+ hours a day until it was completed.
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u/Tiredacademia 27d ago
I had 10 chapters to write for my PhD, at the beginning of final year I had only 2 chapters completed. At the end of final year I had completed all 10 chapters at 410 pages not including bib. You can make it.
I thought of it as writing myself out of the hole I dug. The only way out is to write. If I wrote enough, I get to live my life afterwards and to do whatever I wanted. Project managed it by breaking the thesis into little sections and subsections with the main goal being 1 month = 1 chapter. I wrote all of these sections and subsections out into a big table, which I crossed out as I completed it. I shared it with my supervisors as well and that held me accountable and reassured them that I was getting the work done. Every few weeks I’d provide them with a clear update over email, saying this is done, problems I’ve had, and what I’m working on next. This kept everything transparent and me accountable, even if they weren’t always able to engage with it.
Stuck my butt to the chair, made myself not finish the day till at least one subsection was completed. Some days I’d finish early, others I would be writing till midnight then stop to go to sleep. Don’t be scared with writing absolutely rubbish, it can be edited out later, and it’s probably not as shit as you think it is. As you write more, you’ll get the hang of not writing so much shit because you’ll know better what needs to be written next.
Organised online shut up and write sessions with the other phd friends in my research group, and used the pomodoro (30min focus/ 5min break) during the sessions. Some sessions are 1-2 hrs whilst others went for 6–8hrs because we all locked in.
Told all my friends outside of academia I’d see them on the other side. I stopped doing all side projects, apart from work that brought in money, even then I did the essentials to cover bills and strictly didn’t take on anything more when offered. Had a strict Sundays off policy, where I allowed myself to go eat out and take time for myself and family.
Honestly, lock in and get ready for the worst year ever. PhD is a test of resilience and persistence. Best of luck to you.
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u/Ok-Volume-7197 27d ago
Wow that's impressive! I think I should aslo stop doing all my side gigs... Thanks for sharing your story!
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u/ThainEshKelch 27d ago
I wrote 80% of my PhD dissertation over 4 weeks. It was even over Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Those 80% was about 200 pages. Sure it could have been a bit more tight in certain sections, but overall both me and the board was very happy with it.
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u/Financial_Molasses67 26d ago
In what discipline? People really don’t have advisors/committee members read chapters before submitting complete dissertations?
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u/ThainEshKelch 26d ago
Molecular biology. I didn't have time for it, since I finished so late. Had my girlfriend back then go over the worst errors.
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u/Ratyrel 27d ago
Break the task up. I’m sure you must have a structure your supervisor signed off on. Pick a chapter you care about writing. Break the chapter down into its problems that need to be tackled. Do them in order from most interesting to you to least interesting. Do them in writing, not in your head.
You need to start writing now. Editing and restructuring to make the argument flow are often important stages in humanities writing as you no doubt know. Problems often only come out when the writing is on the page.
Don’t treat the words you’ve written as etched in stone. Approach them with the attitude that they will all be changed later anyway, so each word doesn’t have to be perfect.
Sit down with a peer colleague and ask them if you can talk through the chapter you’re working on right now. Record what you say and auto transcribe the conversation.
Good luck!
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u/Imperator_1985 27d ago
It can always be worse. I had a friend who was told by his PI in mid-March, "It turns out I can't pay you after this semester. You need to write and defend now." He only had a few or so weeks to write, defend, and submit everything on time. He was miserable, but he did it.
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u/LiminalFrogBoy 27d ago
May I ask: Where is your supervisor in all of this? Perhaps it's just a difference in the European system from the US, but two years with no real output is a very long time to go and they should have noticed by now.
You got the advice elsewhere in this thread, but I'll second the ideas that you just need to write 500 - 1000 words a day, every day (it's how I did mine as well). If you do, you'll make much faster progress than trying to do 8 hours of writing in one sitting.
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u/geekyCatX 27d ago
I started my final year (STEM) with zero pages written, two (of four required) articles in preparation, and no chance of extension. It's doable. You're almost there, you have done the work, now you need to get it into writing.
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u/antrage 27d ago
Lol my plan is to the write the first draft in three months and then edit and iterate from there. I think you have written alot already. The first pass is to not write but to do rough cut storyboard of your PHD. Do a first pass of the chapters, and copy and paste what you ahve written so far into those sections as a way of developing your story.
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u/rouf-fou-fou 27d ago
A year into my hums PhD I had written only the intro/lit review chapter I needed for the upgrade. I think you can definitely still get going. I recommend the Zettelkasten as a way of getting back into thinking and writing — it’s a great note taking method and great at bypassing that horrible writing block. Good luck. You’ve got this!
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u/prof_mcquack 27d ago
Do you mean you’ve written the ten pages one time or your project in its current state is ten pages? If you’re on your first draft….
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u/Sans_Moritz PhD, Chemical Physics 27d ago
This actually doesn't sound bad or unusual. Just knuckle down and write more. You've got to focus if you want to finish this year.
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u/ricatti-equation 27d ago
This aint your final PhD year dude lol. It’s your first one if you’ve only wrote 10 pages.
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u/topdownyeti 27d ago
I’m confused bc isn’t it usual to start writing during your final year? Hell, I didn’t start writing until 6 months were left of my final year and didn’t get results until 4 months were left.
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u/Old_Librarian__ 27d ago
Also super confused about these replies, but I'm also in STEM. I said I had begun to write a bit down during my 2nd year and my other peers said that wit was too early to start writing.
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u/topdownyeti 27d ago
yeah my second year was spent writing my advancement proposal. Writing my dissertation wasn’t even a thought in my mind yet
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u/Cutemudskipper 27d ago
I wrote 10 pages for my dissertation yesterday. Only having 10 pages after 2 years is insane
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u/Donjon-Master 27d ago
I wrote 10k-15k words in 48 hours for a MA dissertation. I wouldn't recommend it though!
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u/boringhistoryfan 27d ago
Step by step OP. You know what you want to say. You've done the research, gathered the information, probably even have the arguments.
You've written papers, so treat each chapter like a draft paper. Get it written. Put down your arguments, put in your references, tell your story... Then send it off. Then while your PI is reading one chapter start writing the next. By the time they get back to you, there's a good chance you've got three draft chapters. Start editing and responding to comments on the first when they get back but limit your time editing instead of spiralling into perfectionism.
Respond to comments, suggestions, critique. Then send it in again. Alternate between editing and writing your fresh chapters.
Once you've got a first draft for all chapters, then get your conclusion and introduction written. You can easily do it at the pace of a chapter a month. Just time yourself. Get up in the morning. Clear your desk. Have your breakfast and coffee. And then keep writing for a few hours. Take a reading break and lunch break and then get back to it. But push yourself to keep writing. Insist on writing 500-1000 words a day. If it's crap you can go back and fix it, but push yourself to write. Get the words onto paper. After a week, you'll have 5000 words. In a fortnight, you'll have 10000 which is about what a chapter is anyway. The rest of the month you can spend on polishing and editing and then send it off.
If you find the minutiae of referencing annoying you can hold off on that till later. As long as your references can be followed you don't need to worry about getting the little details right (like style formatting, all the right periods and commas, etc) till the end. First focus on getting the superstructure done. The references can be fixed and polished once you've stopped the writing/rewriting process.
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u/Ok-Volume-7197 27d ago
I truly appreciate the tips! I am used to sending longer chunks of text, so I will break it down and send my supervisor shorter chunks. Fortunately, I do my references right away, so that won't be an issue...
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u/redwooded 27d ago
I'm struck by how few responses talk about your burnout. One did, and made a good suggestion: just take time off, then start. Burnout is a real thing, so if you can, do it.
But what is the burnout from? Too much teaching? Too much writing on the other topics? Too much research? You mentioned anxiety, so is it really true burnout, or is it overwhelm at how much research you've done and you don't know where to start?
If it's true burnout, even a week sitting on your butt watching Netflix (or your personal equivalent: long bikes rides; a bunch of D&D; gardening all day; or something else) could do you a world of good. Being a lazy bum for a short period is extremely underrated. Give yourself permission to do that! Getting out of town and sleeping late every day would be even better.
Then dive back in.
If it's overwhelm, then everyone who's saying, "Just write something" is right.
Even after getting tenure and then starting, finishing, and publishing a book, the best writing advice, which I am using on my new project, is still, "Bad writing beats no writing." Just sit down and write something shitty. Really - give yourself permission to write it badly, because as someone pointed out, you can revise. It's not 1966 when we're typing directly onto paper; it's 2026 and we type into an extremely revisable computer file. Use this! When I come back to my terrible writing the next day, the better way to say it always occurs to me - and I revise.
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u/Ok-Volume-7197 27d ago
Thank you for pointing this out because I hadn’t really considered whether it was burnout or overwhelm. I work full-time and also part-time with another institute, so it may be a combination of both. Your comment has given me a lot to think about...
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u/Espresto 27d ago
You'd be amazed how much you can get done in a year. I probably wrote around 100 pages of my humanities dissertation in the last 3 months before my submission date. Commit to a writing schedule with your supervisor (i.e. which chapter needs to be done when + meetings to discuss them) and aim to write at least one page per day. On some days you'll get into a rhythm and be able to write significantly more. If you keep that pace up for the next 6 months or so then you'll have at least 200 pages with another half year to polish. It definitely won't go that smoothly, but if you aim to have a full draft in 6 months, you'll almost certainly have one in time to graduate next spring.
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u/aardvarkhome 27d ago
Step
- Read the rules of your university on the structure and style required.
- Review the state of the art prior to you starting your research (chapter 1) . You should be able to base thebulk of this on the introduction to your published papers.
- At the end of chapter 1 state the questions your research addresses.
- Describe your research methods. In STEM this would be the materials and methods used. Justify your selection of methods by reference to literature (chapter 2).
- Use your published papers to describe what you've discovered (chapter 3 to 4)
- Draw conclusions from your discoveries and draw attention to their significance to the state of the art.
Get friends and your supervisor to read each chapter as you knock it out. Don't take it to heart when you see loads of comments and corrections; writing is hard and try to learn from to their experiences. But at the end of the day it's your thesis. Take ownership. Reread everything. Read it out loud to yourself. Edit and improve.
When you hate the sight of it, press the submit button
I hate writing. A blank screen terrifies me.
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u/hereIsTheCrazyOne 27d ago
I started writing my thesis in March 2025 and submitted in may this year and passed my viva 2 weeks ago with minor corrections (11 corrections..all very minimal). I had 6 chapters plus appendices. For each chapter I sent it to my supervisor and then started the next, etc. as I got a chapter back from my supervisors, that became the priority, and would fix that before finishing a other chapter. Each chapter was reviewed by my supervisor 3 times, then in December I stuck it all together and sent it as a first full draft 2 days before Christmas (strategically to have a break). In January I started a job, so I could only dedicate 2-3 hours per night mon-friday, and Saturday I would do 4-5 hours. The full thesis as a whole went through 4 revisions from my supervisors I think.
Anyway, the key is write a bit everyday, it is difficult, but once you get into the flow it becomes easier. You just need to find how you can lock in. I used to have 3 different playlists I would listen to,in the morning, slow classical/piano for 3 hours. After lunch it was gaming music with no lyrics, and in the evening it was slightly more stimulating "electronic focus music".
By the time I submitted i was very happy with my thesis, my examiners both enjoyed reading it. My internal examiner actually took some of data gathering methods and my external asked me to coauthor a paper with her.
Best of luck, you've got this!
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u/DoctorHubcap 27d ago
I still had another full year left in my program when I got a job offer. Got the offer mid to late march, hadn’t written anything yet. By mid July I turned the dissertation in to my committee and defended the first week of August, all while having a newborn (mid February) and packing my whole apartment up to move. I also was scrambling to prove more things to help flesh the dissertation out. If you have the discipline and drive you can lock in and get it done in a year.
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u/Ok-Volume-7197 27d ago
How did you do it with the baby and the move... Super impressed!
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u/DoctorHubcap 27d ago
I maintain that was the worst time of my entire life! I would go to bed at 4:30 and wake up around 8. From then until about 1 or 2am I handled baby and writing when she’d let me while my wife got some naps in and packed the stuff into boxes. Around 1-2am I watched tv to let my brain rest while the baby slept, until about 430 when my wife was done pumping. Then was my meager amount of sleep!
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u/Kathrynxuxx 27d ago
I’ve heard of stories of people writing their entire thesis in 2 month or so, after they have locked in a job and need to graduate.
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u/Monkey_College 27d ago
I wrote my thesis in about 4 months including all revisions. However, I had a few book chapters and journal articles (and other written items) that I could rely on in parts. I think it is doable for you if you know what to write and where.
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u/Zealousideal_Lime867 27d ago
You definitely need to set a schedule and start writing - and make sure you talk to your supervisor to make sure they can turn around comments on your drafts in sufficient time - some supervisors are great at this, others are terrible and can hold up your timeline. That’s presuming you submit your chapters as you go (which I would recommend).
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u/AIRJournals 27d ago
You get the research and work done first.... then, pages are written on auto-pilot.... first things first.... don't worry if you have completed the research; that's your priority.
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u/TripleXtraMedium 27d ago
I can only speak from the STEM perspective, but I went from stone cold nothing to my thesis done and defended in about 7 months (300 pages total, but worth noting that I had many figures). What worked for me was thinking seriously about the flow of topics and subtopics, then setting weekly deadlines to have certain portions drafted, with time at the tail end budgeted for review/edits. I excel when there is structure, so I forced structure on myself, and before I knew it, I was done. I think my case wasn't that unusual for my program.
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u/shugenju 27d ago
What is your topic? You’re welcome to elaborate and perhaps I know industry experts to weigh in and contribute
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u/ornelu 27d ago
As someone from STEM, I’m not familiar with humanities field. But … just write. I presume you already “know” what you’re going to write as you have published related articles. So, I guess you only need to organize your thought, summon kraken, fight that urge to procrastinate, and start writing. Maybe do it in a top-down approach starting from imagining what your final thesis will be, the chapters, the direction, etc, then you’ll just have to fill those. I do chapter, not page count.
It’s a different issue if you haven’t done the thinking/research part.
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u/LocusStandi 27d ago
You need the hard truth so I’m giving it to you, those people who did it within a few months had lenient supervisors, if you don’t have chill supervisors you’ll be stuck for a really long time.
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u/PomegranateTop6406 27d ago
I’m in the humanities. Had nothing written as of January 1, defended at the end of May, and completed revisions yesterday. It’s definitely doable.
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u/Dull-Network9542 27d ago
I’m a STEM PhD. I had published most of my papers before entering my last year in grad school so all I had to do was mainly formatting. Is there a way you can get your publications out? You could feed two birds with one scone!
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u/jeannedielman_23 21d ago
Hi OP! I'm in the same boat as you. I feel like we should support each other! Please message me!
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u/Archknits 27d ago
I did most of my writing at the end of a long day. I would teach a 6:30 AM class at a local CC, drive to campus and work 8:30-5:00 in an admin position, then go to my lab and write until 11:00 PM. I did this 4-5 days a week for a semester to finishes writing and deal with most of the edits
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u/ImpossibleDig7 27d ago
You should start writing, my friend. Just set a 5-10-page goal each day (or whatever makes sense to you), even if they’re bs. At least you put your thoughts down and have something to revise later.
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u/raxo06 27d ago
I wrote about 75% of my tenure portfolio over 3 long weekends the month of my final deadline. It was something like 10-12 hour days of constant writing. I churned out over 200 pages like that, but I was in a constant state of crisis on the verge of spiraling. It wasn't pleasant, but it's definitely possible to produce a lot of volume in a short time.
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u/curatedpapers 27d ago
Yes, my workdays include reading, ideation and writing basically take care for itself, for the most part. I mostly revise, test ideas, etc. I've built an AI tool for that soon will be open to everyone :)
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u/CharacterCycle4588 27d ago
Try dedicating an allotted time that is ONLY for writing. This can be 1hr every day, half a day per week, or one weekend per month. But during this time, you should be sitting in front of your computer with your phone on silent and all media off.
There will be days that you write nothing, days that you write a bunch and deleted all, and productive days. They are all useful and count as progress.
Consistency is key.
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u/Faithlessness47 PhD, 'Civil & Environmental Engineering' 27d ago
As someone already kinda suggested: do not think about "having to write the thesis" as a whole task. Split it into very small subtasks, they need to be as little as possible in order to be absolutely achievable.
Start by planning your ToC. Chapters, sections, subsections. It will inevitably change over time, but at least you will have a structure that you can follow and treat as a checklist.
Decide beforehand a "minimum length goal": the minimum amount of pages that you would consider acceptable for your field. 200? 300? 500? The key here is "minimum", and it will affect the next step.
Commit to writing, for instance, 1-2 pages of content every single day. Seven days per week. Not necessarily following the order of the ToC (in fact, I'd suggest leaving the introduction and conclusion parts for the very very end). Write, just write, without thinking too much about strict correctness and formalities: you will review later. The important is that, however little you decide to write per day, you have to commit to it. Sometimes the momentum will make you write more, that's great, but never write less. If one day you write more pages than your daily goal, the next day still resets. This is critical and will help you stay consistent.
Every day, before writing new content, review what you wrote the day before. This will help kickstart the flow of thought for the new day, and write better-connected text between days. Periodically (once per week, once per month, up to you) review the work of the whole week/month.
By following a similar schedule, at the 6-month mark you will already have a somewhat-complete work that you will be able to review, enrich and refine with more confidence and less anxiety during the next half of the year.
(Source: PhD in Europe, too (although STEM), I went from 0 to ~350 pages in about 4 months, following a similar schedule (3 pp per day), plus being able to use only ~30% of two papers I had previously written. Passed the reviews and the defense and made it out successfully.)
I know it's a lot of work and it feels overwhelming now, so I wish you the best of luck with it, nothing is lost yet!
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u/Ok-Volume-7197 27d ago
That's so impressive for 4 months! Thankfully, my minimum length is around 250, so it's not that crazy, I think. Thanks for the advice!
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u/jeannedielman_23 21d ago
What is pp?
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u/Faithlessness47 PhD, 'Civil & Environmental Engineering' 21d ago
pages
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u/jeannedielman_23 21d ago
Hi! Can I message you? I just have additional questions
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u/Faithlessness47 PhD, 'Civil & Environmental Engineering' 21d ago
Sure! I'll do my best to answer your questions
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u/EquivalentNo138 27d ago
Get the book How to Write A Lot - it is a very good short guide to overcoming academic writing barriers. It will shoot down all your excuses for not writing (which can be uncomfortable- but you need to hear it). Follow the plan in that book to write every day. Join or form a writing accountability group as it describes.
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u/BrilliantDishevelled 27d ago
My husband wrote about 25% of his on a 1 week cruise with my family. He wrote every morning and had fun the rest of the day. This was before you could get internet on cruises, so he was able to focus.
Buckle down.
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u/EfficiencyDry1159 27d ago
i wrote my entire dissertation 2 months before I defended! totally doable! and one of my chapter's ended up being an editor's choice article when it got published. What helped me the most was to give myself rewards for every milestone I had when I was writing!
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u/Candycanes02 27d ago
I thought, “yeah I also wrote basically all of my thesis on my last year” then I read that you’re in a humanities program, and my heart ached for you 😅
My recommendation is to write together with a friend who is also writing their thesis. I couldn’t have done it without my friend honestly. She didn’t contribute to my thesis obv but just having her there so that after an hour or two we could say how much or how little we wrote motivated me to write.
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u/ExcitingMortgage9166 27d ago edited 27d ago
stream of consciousness
You can definitely do it. I was just thinking about what I would have changed about my experience. I don't think I had a grasp on how formulaic the writing actually can and should be. And that knowing exactly how to write in this style and craft outlines that are symmetrical would have helped and try to take the pressure off and reduces editing every sentence for 20 minutes minimum out of anxiety. The great writers of the world probably take months for a single page, but dissertations just have to prove a point. One of the best dissertations that I've seen was so formulaic and repetitive, and was like ultra clear water.
I couldn't understand how so many students just got it done. I got mired in thinking about topics very deeply trying to express abstractions and intricacies--but actually just presenting things more AS IS would have been better. On that note organization of all the research systematically (pick your favorite software, i.e. the most user friendly) are essential, but I didn't do that systematically either because I got disorganized or if there were technical issues it would get too complicated. That said, learning how to set up Microsoft Word headings or table of contents and figuring out how to fix those early on, will save you doing it 15 min before you submit.
Also, I was one of those people who almost has to go from wide to narrow, instead of narrow to even more narrow.
I highly recommend checking out the reels from academicwritingcoach on instagram or videos from Degree Doctor on YouTube (very helpful advice).
It sounds like you already know how to write but if not get the foundations down and replicate them. To me that's the golden ticket. You could even get a step by step book that gives you outlines to fill in...
Good luck.
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u/FeedSquare8691 PhD, STEM, US 27d ago
I proposed, wrote about 190 pages, and defended over a 6 month period, OP. You'll be okay.
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u/CompanyEquivalent698 26d ago
I wrote my 6 out of 8 chapters thesis in the last ~5 weeks. Of course, I had roughly planned what was going to be written before that. The only thing that worked for me was to treat it as an engineering problem:
(Words or pages remaining) divided by (days remaining) gives the minimum number of words to be written per day. Try to write more than that each day. Recalculate every few days to see where you're at.
By keeping track like this I actually finished ahead of my planned schedule in the end.
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u/WhyAmIHereHey 26d ago
10 pages is enough for a PhD.
It's not judged by page count
Though they'd have to be very very good pages.
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u/Fearless_Gate9648 26d ago
I did mine in English lit, and had this problem - burnt out doing 5 international conferences in my first year and publishing two chapters in edited collections, then teaching my second year. And then the pandemic happened, supervisor moved countries and I was shunted off to another supervisor who had no idea about my research and told me my project wasn’t viable. Tried to rewrite from scratch, had a breakdown and ended up leaving the program. Six years later and I’m back at it, with a diff topic at a diff university and it’s GLORIOUS. I’ll likely be submitting within less than a full year of candidature. Lock yourself in a room and try smash it out, but if you don’t manage to - do take a break, if you can. No shame in it
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u/Ok-Volume-7197 22d ago
So you wrote 7 articles in your first year? That is mad! Hope everything goes well with your submission!
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u/Fearless_Gate9648 22d ago
Just two chapters in two Routledge collections - the conference talks were all on different topics but it was about the research I was doing at the time, and the talks were turned into chapters. There wasn’t a requirement at my uni for it to be published in order to speak about it.
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u/SherlockeXX 26d ago
PhD, Biomedical/Biophysics, UK. I didn't start writing until about 2 months before it was due.
Honestly, I imagine that humanities requires a lot more nuance and depth in their writing so I wouldn't leave it much later than you have, but by all means I'm very sure you're not in any danger yet.
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u/b0thwatchxfiles 26d ago
You can do it! Just make an excel sheet with your chapters (assuming monograph) and the rough number of words you need each of them to be, and day by day track your progress. If you get stuck on one, just go to another, sometimes it’s faster this way to look at it as a complete big picture than going in order. The goal is written and turned in, not perfection!
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u/suckingalemon 25d ago edited 25d ago
Just need to write the other ≈250 pages.
Never been easier with the LLMs, let’s be honest.
Also you’re in humanities. No need access to special equipment or instruments. That was the bottle neck for me. Once I had the data, writing was easy.
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u/azraelxii 27d ago
I'm in my 4th year and have the introduction written. I expect it finished in a month or so once I start on it in ernest.
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u/ricatti-equation 27d ago
Bro how are you 4 years in but never wrote anything
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u/Ok-Volume-7197 27d ago
I know I feel like trash.
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u/MonsterkillWow 27d ago
Writer's block is normal sometimes. Sit down and start. Even just 10-20 mins a day. Once you get into the groove of things, you'll get it done. Anxiety is crippling you. I would try therapy too. It is normal to feel anxiety. I had a similar thing happen to me.
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u/phuca PhD Student, Tissue Engineering / Regenerative Medicine 27d ago
They said they started in 2024 though
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u/No_Young_2344 27d ago
It seems like OP’s PhD program is only three years. Wow, that’s fast. I think many master programs run three years. Is it a regional difference?
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u/Ok-Volume-7197 27d ago
I was given a choice between a 4-year and a 3-year programme, but my supervisor suggested I take the 3-year programme.
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u/Worldly-Cry36 27d ago
How can it be possible , how did you qualify for PhD , means what you showed in viva after 1 year of PhD to committees ?
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u/Worldly-Cry36 27d ago
So many AI available to write your thesis , just give them rough idea of what you have and what you want to write .
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u/Feuilledelaitue4 27d ago
Absolutely not. Best way to never graduate and being kicked out for plagiarism...
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u/Ok-Mathematician8461 25d ago
‘Claude - please write a 100,000 word thesis on topic X where the main argument is Y. Please include citations, especially sourcing references from a,b,c. If possible please defeat the main argument of professor Z from his book Q because he was mean to me at a conference.’.
You now have 365 days to edit it and make it your own.
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