Stagnation (Thesis work)

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this, and how you dealt with it? I'm a year into my MA, and I've just been in this stagnant period/block for the past eight months. I've been keeping up with the course work, but my thesis has literally gotten nowhere. Other than having my proposal approved, it's not even really off the ground yet.

What do you when you get "stuck"? I've been discussing it in therapy, and so far the best advice is "just do it" and "just start with something small, and try to gain some momentum." I haven't had much success with this so far, but maybe I haven't tried hard enough?

Experiences?

I'm no where near writing a thesis yet, but I often have difficulty with papers...no matter what length. What I have found to work for myself is basically the "just start with something small" bit. Maybe look at it a different way though. How about, just write something, any thought that you have about your thesis. And I DO mean ANY thought. I once wrote something along the lines of "This paper assignment is the most ridiculous piece of %*#&%*@!&% ever!" As I went on with this thought, it turned into an actual thought about the content of the material the paper was to be on, then very rapidly, a body paragraph that worked nicely. I ended up getting an A on that paper.

I don't usually have a problem writing papers. I chose the non-thesis option, though, because of time constraints. My grad scholarship requires that I teach undergrad courses 12 hours a week plus my own classes.

My suggestion: spend time with your advisors and tell them you're stuck. They have been there and done that, and in my experience, they are extremely helpful. Frankly, a therapist is useless on this matter. Let me know how it works out.

Susan

Thanks, I do appreciate the advice
My advisor is...unapproachable. It's a rather sticky situation, to be honest, but it has a lot to do with pompousness, academic posturing and politics, and me not being "allowed" to embarrass him by being in trouble with my thesis...so he's got no idea how stuck I am. I don't know for sure if he'd just orphan me if he knew about my difficulties, but he would most definitely laugh, tell me to "suck it up" and then gossip about me with his other graduate students. He makes fun of other students when we're discussing my work, sometimes, and I really don't want that to happen to me (if it hasn't already) It's sort of just the way he is. I definitely picked the wrong sort of advisor for my personality, but he was the only one interested in the type of work I want to do in my region, so there wasn't much choice, other than to move away, which isn't/wasn't in my best interests either.

There is the possibility of talking with one of the professors on my examining committee, but I'm not sure that they'd agree to not tell my thesis advisor, which is kind of scary.

Hence the stuckness. I don't know if it's just something I have to wait out (maybe I'll get unstuck in due course?) or if there's anything else I can do, other than to keep trying to start small, as serafim suggests. I think that starting small works well for shorter papers (or at least, it has so far...I tend to be okay with the 10-30 page papers for my coursework) but for a 150 page thesis...it seems so huge and overwhelming.

I think the huge and overwhelming part is why starting small may help. Could being stuck also be related to where you are in your grad studies? What I mean is, could you be expecting too much of yourself at this point in time? Is there anyone in your cohort that you could talk to and find out how their thesis is going?

First, do you have a non-thesis option? I'm just finishing grad school, and practically no one goes in with the same plan as they finish. I was going to do a thesis until one of my profs said that it really wasn't necessary unless I was doing a creative thesis, and was getting an MA with an emphasis on creative writing or poetry, for example). Otherwise, he'd prefer that I continue with classes and have a more well-rounded education. He was right about that.

Anyway, you're a grown-up person. Go and talk to the other members of your thesis committee and see what they have to offer. I'm certain this isn't the first time the problem has arisen. All of my advisors have kept our conversations private, and I'm certain yours would do the same.

What length papers are you used to writing? It might help to think of it as a series of papers that length rather than one long document.

If you think of about how many parts / papers you would do (chapters if you like). Then you can break those parts down again into sections (of about 2 pages each) and then... You are kind of good to go. Save chapter one for some kind of introduction.

I am assuming here that you are an arts / social sciences type rather than needing to write up an experiment...

The best advice that I've been given is to think of it as a google map with different levels of zoom.

1) The contents page. Headings for the different 'chapters' you are going to write (helps to start with this being a manageable paper length for you and then it can of course evolve differently).

2) The section headings within each chapter.

3) The paragraphs that fall under the section headings.

Start by the furtherest level of zoom. The contents page. Then try and work out some provisional sections and then (when something seems interesting to you) have a go at writing the sections. Getting stuck on the paragraphs? Then zoom out a little to the section headings and play with those for a while.

Your advisor may be one of those advisors who isn't so happy to TALK about your work he would rather SEE it. Instead of telling him you are stuck the way to approach it might be to give him some work in progress. Whether it be the provisional table of contents (maybe with the section headings too) or a few sections or a chapter. Once he has some idea of what you are up to then he is better placed to help you improve it.

Good luck.