So I’ve started writing my thesis.

I’ve been quite reluctant over the past few months. I promised myself to have at least a few thousand words done by the end of the summer holidays, but it never eventuated. Conversations in the first supervision session of the year focussed mainly on what writing I haven’t done yet, how important it is to start writing, even if it’s crap, and little entertaining anecdotes about being published and my kids’ summer adventures that were eventually dismissed as all too obvious attempts at talking about anything else than writing.

At the end of the working day I strap on my armour and face the evil Procrastilon. She has twenty eyes dotted all over her forehead and tattoos of crushed snails and centipedes up her arms and neck. Her posse of whorish vixens include Mahjong Titans, Facebook and YouTube, who suck me into their world where I am kept for days on end, frail and abused, tortured and lame of mind.

Actually I developing my own strengths in the battle. I find that if I am at the computer by nine pm, then by 1am I am in the zone. I find myself typing at a record speed of twenty-five words a minute. By that time I don’t give a flying f*** about the sentences that are forming on the screen; I’m just producing. The first forty words of the thesis introduction took me almost two weeks to compose; the rest of it took me less than two hours.

The other day I met with my supervisor to discuss the chapter. Here is a transcript:

Supervisor: Well I read it. It was fine.

Paul: Fine?

S: Yeah.

P: Really, because I just sorta wrote it out thinking it would be cra…

S: No it was fine.

P: Oh, good. So everything’s in there that should be? The right content?

S: Yes, that bit is fine.

P: Okay, and how’s my writing style? Is that okay?

S: Oh yeah that quite fine.

P: Right. So no need to make any changes or improvements.

S: No, Paul. I think you’re doing fine so far.

P: Well, good then.

S: Yes. Umm. You could write some more though.

P: Oh. Okay. Will do.

Man I so want his job.

I just got permission from one of the bloggers in my sample to tell her story as I’ve written it in the introduction, so I’ll post the chapter after I tweak it a little. As you will read, it is a fine piece of work.