There were many occasions during graduate school where I encountered what I believed to be writer’s block. I would sit for hours, or even days, staring at my computer, pondering what I should write. Even though I had the ideas in my head, I could not get them onto paper.Talking to a friend about my writing woes, he asked me if I kept a dissertation diary. “You mean, like ‘dear diary’?” I asked sarcastically. He patiently explained that a dissertation diary would be a place where I could write anything I wanted about my dissertation – any thoughts, ideas, arguments, emotions – that nobody would ever see but me. It sounded intriguing. Something that was only mine? I could complain about how much I hated some of the literature on my topic, or bitch about the in-depth interviews I was conducting? Sign me up.

It quickly became more than a litany of complaints. In the diary, I was able to work through critiques of my work. I began to make connections between what seemed like disparate topics in my dissertation. As I wrote about the interviews I was conducting, I gave myself the opportunity to revisit them and identify what I could have done better, and consequently be more prepared for the next interview. In essence, I was giving myself a workshop to think through the various elements of a very large project.

What I realized while keeping the dissertation diary was that I felt liberated from the shackles of perfection. Working on drafts, I always imagined what my committee would say, or what a reviewer would say – to the point that I became paralyzed, and unable to write. This paralysis was what I had mistakenly labeled writer’s block. In my dissertation diary, I could write whatever I wanted, and however I wanted. Nobody was watching. With this freedom, I wrote more than I ever thought I could.

Not everything from your dissertation diary will make it into your dissertation, but I guarantee you much of it will, albeit in a very different shape. You might devote 4 pages of your diary to dissecting one piece of literature, and improve your understanding so that you can write a more sophisticated literature review. The dissertation diary enables you to write out your ideas in whatever way you desire, helping you to understand what you’re actually writing about.

Writing is ultimately an act of revision. There is no such thing as a perfect first draft, so your focus should be on getting your ideas on paper, no matter how inelegant they may be. As we approach Academic Writing Month (#AcWriMo), where many of you will pledge to write every day, consider creating a dissertation diary not only to write more, but to think more – without concern for everyone else’s opinion.