interestingly, I've been doing this whole dissertation thing almost entirely on my own, meeting with Judith and/or Lyn every blue moon and hearing about how they are looking forward to whatever idiosyncratic thing I'm putting together over here and then just sitting and writing.

we'll see if this strategy works. so many grad students form writing groups and critiquing groups but I'm doing this on my own because it is less stressful for me this way. the angst and drama of other people's dissertation trials is catching, I find, and I remain much calmer if I don't listen to their woes but just sit and write.

perhaps if I were having a writer's block problem I would seek out the help of others but this is finally coming so easily (I mean, once I hack through the terror that begins each writing session) that I can only think that meeting regularly with anxious writers would only exacerbate the fear that I am not doing this right. listening to others' work often convinces me that I am going about this all wrong.

soon I'll know whether or not that is true.