Kick me up the bum and help me literally start this essay...

[Ismeyes]

I need to start and finish this essay today. There is no choice, I've procrastinated and left it far too late. I know what I want to write - I have a basic plan. The content should mean it passes, which is all I need it to do. So Why have I written the first line 6 times and deleted it again????

It's a critical reflection and evaluation essay (nursing) and I'm damned if I'm starting it with 'This essay will be a critical reflection.....' I hate 1st/3rd person confusion in nursing essays.

Someone please please help me, because once I've written the introduction I am allowed to eat some cheese on toast....

i cant help sorry, but i am ignoring my own essay so you are not alone. I dont even have a plan yet. It has to be done today or tomorrow at latest. Get off mumsnet and get on with it :)

I've got half a line...

Write the first line of every paragraph to get your basic structure sorted? That would feel like a cheese on toast-worthy achievement? You can always edit these lines as you go along but then you could focus on doing one paragraph every so often with break or treat at the end? How long does it have to be?

2,500 words, so not too long. I've got a focus for each paragraph, I think I'm just being paralysed by perfectionism, even though I literally just have to get 50% to pass and that is the end of it!

200 wordd down - cheese on toast here I come!

Don't start at the beginning - leave that until the end. Start on paragraph two - some overarching, clever words will come to for the intro by the end!

lol overarching clever words? Me?

Why not! Alternatively, by the time you have written the rest you wont care half as much what you put in the intro! I just sit looking at the blank page trying to construct the perfect intro sentence if I try and write an essay from beginning to end.

As the worlds greatest procrastinator I agree that starting with the intro never works. You need to get a few solid paragraphs with loads of facts in them down first and work your way from there don't worry about grammar or anything just get lots of info down. Once that is done you can fill in the niceties in those paragraphs and then do your links, conclusion and intro last. It's a way to get going. I wrote a 100,000 word thesis in 8 weeks like this.

I should be marking dissertations instead of writing this ....

Agree about starting anywhere and then rearranging it with cutting and pasting. Honestly, it is sooooooo easy to be a student now compared to when I did it first time round crusty Tippexed essays.

marking dissertations, I'm still writing mine. It's due in on the 14th. yikes!

DH just got home, I told him I'd written 900 words so far - his reply 'What in 4 hours? 4 more hours to go?!'.

Well obviously not in 4 hours straight DH, because I am entitled to breaks. Thanks for the encouragement you arse

You are me this time last week.

I have got no great advice, other than coffee, chocolate and power through. I took a little break every hour or so, otherwise I started going funny.

May the force be with you.

How are you getting on? Ive just finished mine but it was a little 1500 words. I also have a dissertation to write and another essay to do but got a couple of weeks left yet for that essay. I havent even started my degree yet still going the access. Hope i am alot more sorted before i start university. I must invest in a desk.

doing not going (maybe i should give up now)

2,494 words done woo hoo!

Chocolate works well - I've eaten one of DD's easter eggs, may I be forgiven.

I have no idea if it makes sense at this stage, because I have lost all sense of perspective, but I know it will pass. It has too, I've been sat here for nearly 10 bloody hours. My brain hurts and weirdly, so do the tops of my ears.

Just compiling the reference list now. Next stop , 3,000 word EMA due by the 24th.

Ha ha - pilfered chocolate works wonders!I had a 4,000-er to hand in on Friday and eating one of the DCs' eggs helped ease the pain. And, you see, the way I see it, my finishing the essay, passing the course and having a regular job will make them happier than some grotty old Dairy Milk egg

Well done

frazzles work for me, ohhh those little bacony strips of lush :) well done on a great days work

I'm stuck :( I'm doing a piece for APL and am finding it much harder than just a plain 6000 words essay. I've taken to eating pear drops for a sugar rush but all it does it give me a headache

Well done Ismeyes on your hard work . I'm impressed by an essay in one day.

Thank you, I'm still here doing references. Good luck to you all, may much chocolate come your way!

Well done Ismeyes - have some to go with the chocolates, you made it through the pain barrier! Trust me, it doesn't get any easier however many years you spend writing essays and papers. Its still like pulling teeth for me.

Write the whole sodding thing, without agonising over getting the wording exactly spot-on. Just get it down. If it's really tough-going, allow yourself a game of computer solitaire or something every 500 words (I know how to enjoy myself, me).

You can return to it tomorrow and tweak the wording: the prospect of returning to work on it will be much less daunting in the knowledge that you've written the thing and just need to finesse the details.

Take it from someone who basically used to write essays for a living, pre-DCs :)

I've now written the whole sodding thing . Its taken me all day but the buggering essay is now done and ready for a final read through tomorrow and then it can go! Goodnight!

Yahay. Referencing is like the cherry on the dull cake.

I'm 1200 words down with about another 1800 to go. I've not got an exact word count for this piece which is probably not helping. Another excuse ...