Progress

On Friday Big J and I were talking after work and he looked at me and said, "Honestly, how is your dissertation going." I almost cried. There is very little that I keep from Big J, but I hadn't been able to bring myself to tell him that I've been in a writing funk. I have been so afraid of disappointing him. Of course I couldn't lie, so Friday night, he got the answer. I told him about my frustrations, my writer's block, all of it. And, true to his nature, he was understanding. I think he was more disappointed that I wasn't able to tell him than the fact I was making little if any progress.

We also came up with a plan for working: I set deadlines with him. I seriously need someone to be accountable to and clearly I don't want to disappoint him. My goal for this weekend then, was to come up with a detailed outline for the results chapters (all four!). And I did it. I had three people review it and make comments. With the feedback I received I have some changes to make, but it will be ready to send to my advisor tomorrow in preparation for our Tuesday morning meeting.

And the best thing about it is that I finally feel like I have some good direction. I feel like I can make some major headway by taking one piece at a time instead of fretting over the dissertation as a whole.