a deadline approaches after two days of unprecedented productivity. three tips for dissertation writers: 1. retreat to an internet-free zone and resist all impulses to drive into town just to look up one thing 2. get a bigger desk and put it in front of a window 3. make your adviser threaten you with deadlines. it's funny -- throughout the year i was studying for my phd exams, any number of friends pulled me aside and offered bits of advice (mostly of the order: chill the hell out, anne) and when i began writing the dissertation the same thing happened (this time it was more staid: write everyday, outline first, don't over read). in both cases, i couldn't hear any thing they were saying and i likely resisted all of these suggestions. i'm so stubborn and so entrenched in my own deeply flawed process. this chapter -- which isn't nearly done -- has been about trying to take some of this advice and let some of my neuroses go. today it feels possible.