in the homestretch

The past few days have been crazy in ways previously unimaginable. Basically after meeting with my adviser and freaking out for a day (or two), I got back to work. I "kept calm and carried on" as they say. One day at a time right? Last Thursday/Friday consisted of eating, sleeping, reading, taking notes. Last weekend consisted of eating, sleeping, arranging note cards, writing, writing, and writing... Oh... and some socializing as befits a human being.

So now I practically re-structured my whole essay, a risky move, wrote a new introduction, a new chapter, threw out stuff. It's kind of scary given that normally I prefer to write a little bit at a time and then put everything together. But now about 1/3 of my essay is made up of new writing done over the past weekend. I kept asking myself: Am I freaking out and making it worse ("Don't fix it if it ain't broken") or am I actually improving it.....

I think the essay is in better shape than before.. I think....

At least it'll be over in four days. I'm in the homestretch and excited about it. Friday is party time! And it might be too soon to get all retrospective, but I think I've learned a lot working on the dissertation, not just about the subject matter, but also about myself as a writer: what works, what doesn't, etc. I enjoyed the process, and I'm glad I did it.

PS. Compare this post to the 'freaking out' post and you might think I have moodswings issues. You wouldn't be wrong..