Currently writing the acknowledgments of the Kast book. I'm teary. What a got damn journey. I wanted to share a few things with my grad folks in the throws of diss writing and that dissertation defense aftermath about post diss writing. A thread:

It took me 15 drafts of my prospectus before it was approved to start actually writing the diss. The academy expects you to write and think like the canon. The shit's hard when you weren't a thought in the canon to begin with. It's okay if you wade through the water a lil bit.

I defended May 2013. I'd been writing since August 2010. I was exhausted. Like...didn't have NO revisions from my committee and still waited til the final deadline to submit that bih because I couldn't look at the diss no more. NO GOT DAMN MORE.

IT IS MORE THAN OKAY IF YOU DO NOT WANNA WRITE AFTER THE DISS. I REPEAT. MORE THAN OKAY. I didn't write for over a year after my defense.

Post-defense is an awkward place. You feel guilty for being tired. You feel guilty for not being productive as a bright and bushy tailed new Ph.D. Chile. Be tired. BE TIRED. REST.

I have three phases of diss writing that carried over:
a. Aaaw shit! I am writing my own shit! Dope!
b. Aw hell. I am writing my own shit? Am I good enough for that? FUCK!
c.AAAAAW SHIT! SHIT. What the hell am I doing? People already wrote about what I wanna write about. WTF?!

And then I hit the fuck it stage: the one where you are DONE. Okay? DONE. You have said what you have to say. You've put yourself in convo with the field. And you have no more patience nor the slightest hint of a damn or even a fuck in your little garden. No fertilizer. NAN.

4. The fuck it stage is when you know you ready. If you have any strength to look back at it and revise, you ain't at this stage just yet. Trust. You'll know.

Chronicling Stankonia is not my diss. It is from scratch sans one chapter. I haven't looked at my diss SINCE August 2013. It's gone stay where it's at too LOL.

Diss got you in the door. When you are ready, go write what you want.

Sending all the good writing juju y'alls way!