I also found my dissertation very difficult to structure, and found major shifts in thinking between my chapters. It took me about a year to write up my research, but six months to do the revisions necessary to make all the garbled text into a coherent whole.

Keep at it! It eventually comes together, and at some point to have to practice ‘non-attachment’ and just let it go

Thanks for your post. You’re a good writer as this blog proves…and yeah, I know that dissertation/academic/technical writing is really different from blog writing…but it’s still writing.

When I was working on my dissertation, I felt like what you have written–trouble with linear, dry style that is required, and no use for outlines. I tended to write all parts of a chapter together rather than going from the start of a chapter to the finish. I’d write a little of one section, leave it, then write a little of another section, and keep writing each section until I could figure out how to write each into the next. Not sure if that makes sense, but it worked for me.

If you’re having trouble with the forest because the focus is on the trees, you might try a reverse outline. A reverse outline means that you do the outline from whatever draft section you’re working on, so that you can get a feel for where you’ve been and get some perspective to figure out where you go next. And whenever you do the next bit, add it to the outline…

Blessings on your journey.

I’ve always found in proposal writing on a tight deadline with millions of dollars at atake or putting out a technical report with Cabinet Secretary’s or Governors’ reputations on the line (see — no pressure!) that things get incredibly impossible. And then they get funny. And then you’re over the hump.

You’ll get the PhD dissertation done, and you’ll go on to even bigger and better things in your explorations of theology.

I can recall as a student writing essays first, then creating an outline to match it–just so I could turn the outline in first because that’s the way the teacher wanted it done. In fact, it’s hard for me now to remember how I engaged the writing process back in my pre-computer, Smith-Corona electric-typewriter era. I do know that mowing the lawn has always been an incredibly productive time to organize thoughts and work out details on writing projects. Unfortunately (at least in this case) we don’t get enough snow regularly here in western Missouri to do the same with snow-shoveling. But then, that’s also much harder work (especially now that I have a power-assisted lawnmower).

Try to keep reminding yourself, Matt: It’s all good. When you’re ready to write, you’ll write. Just hang in there.

Thanks for commenting. Rock on…