Getting done

Hello everyone! I've just joined the boot camp and I'm excited to have a nice few months of blogging with you.

I'm a historian of science, working on a dissertation about turn-of-the-(20th)-century medical quackery. I say that I'm joining you for a few months because my current plan is to finish a full draft by early April, in preparation for a mid-May defense! I'm a bit scared and overwhelmed at how soon this seems.

I've had years of procrastinating and dilly-dallying, had personal illnesses and tragedies throw me off course, but I've emerged here in late January with drafts of every chapter, intro and conclusion. My advisor used a pregnancy metaphor to describe finishing the dissertation: now is the time to push. She's going on sabbatical next year, and other folks on my committee go away for the summer, so I have a real deadline. I'm finally at a point where there's no way out but through.

My next milestone is to have Chapter 3 in a final stage by February 1. It's coming together much more quickly than I'd feared. Then it's revising a chapter every two weeks till it's done, or till April, whichever is sooner.

I'm currently feeling pretty stoical about my topic--or, more accurately, fed up. I'm hoping that all of your enthusiasm will wear off! I also noticed that many of my fellow bootcampers are in the early stages of their diss. I'm happy to give advice and tell true stories of how I got from there to here. Nice to meet you and bonne chance!