The stages of writing / rewriting an academic book / chapter / article in my experience (from a current position within that process)

1. Delay. There is always more to read and research but it’s a way of postponing the writing

2. Cautious optimism. You’ve written something, even just a title, and that’s better than nothing

3. Very slow progress. A day or two of writing 500 words - you’ve started, so any urgency has passed

4. Despair. The chapter cannot be written or rewritten. It is fundamentally impossible. You should quit the whole project and probably your job (me yesterday)

5. Hope: you have a rogue thought while sleeping, walking or eating that might provide a way through. NOTE THIS DOWN

(That was me in the middle of the night)

6. Labour. Constructing something and chipping away at it until the right shape emerges, however rough. That will be me next

7. Finishing. Filling out with evidence and references, polishing prose

I almost invariably go through these stages and every time I still chastise myself for doing nothing much in the first few days, and then believe it’s definitely beaten me and that I should abandon it.

But I always get past it, and the real work is the long penultimate section

Back in the day I would have prefaced this “I don’t know who needs to hear this right now...” a Pre-Crisis phrase

I'm currently at the stage where I feel able to rip up the old version of my article, delete big passages and tell myself this is a valid new remix and the old one hasn't been destroyed, just set aside as an alternative version -- it is liberating

Glad to say that after working all bank hol weekend I have progressed from 'Despair' towards 'Finishing' -- which shows that you, if you are in a similar situation, can do this too

Also during the many hours of my focus on this difficult rewriting I didn’t think about COVID-19 once -- bonus