Hmm. I've been feeling very blocked on the thesis, so today Patrick suggested I sit down and make an action plan for writing/researching it, with real, stern goals and deadlines. This is the sort of thing I never do, on my own--which is why I've been drifting along for the past month, researching random relevant topics and not getting anything really solid accomplished. So, this afternoon I sat down to work out a plan--and guess what? It's actually do-able. Whoa. How bizaare! After I typed it all out, I just sat and stared at the computer screen for a few minutes, soaking it in. I can get a first draft of the thesis done by the end of June, 2004, without overly rushing or scraping for research time. That would give me one more full year-and-a-bit to get back to Vienna for last-minute checkup research, as well as loads and loads of revision time, before getting my doctorate (and, I hope, a job) in the autumn of 2005. This feels really mind-boggling.

Maybe in reaction (or just because I felt so stunned, knocked out of my usual daze of pessimistic uncertainty), I actually just sat down and wrote a new first page of Chapter Two of Queen of Thorns, which I'd been futilely knocking my head against for the past week.

Whoa. Too productive. Don't know how to handle it! Time to make some tea. (See, I'm really English now!)

P.S. I feel so vindicated! Last night (without having read my journal entry first), Patrick walked into the house, took one look at my hair, and said, "Virginia Woolf!" Ah, I am a stylistic queen. (True, I'm 100 years out of fashion, but what the heck.)