Towards a Diagnosis

I've had a terrible case of writer's block this week. So terrible, in fact, that I've only written four paragraphs over the course of five days.

While telling Prof. Mom about my writer's block, she related how helpful it had been while she was dissertating to identify the reason for her writer's block.

After pondering this for a few days and recalling that the writing of Chapter 2 (in which I attempted to prove that rocks help in understanding North Country's history) was NOT this difficult, I think that my writer's block is rooted in the fact that I'm working on the review of literature.

In life, I've often found it difficult to to critique those whom I recognize as authorities. And I think that has spilled over into my academic life: I'm finding it difficult to commit to paper my critique of the giants of the field. Verbalizing my critique of those who have been publishing on North Country since before I was born is one thing (and I've done this many times), but ink on paper is forever.

Further, I am keenly aware that I'm not as smart as I think I am and, therefore, may be entirely wrong in my critique.

Add to this my general stress about the job search and my ongoing case of reverse culture shock, and you've got four paragraphs in five days.

So, now that I've diagnosed the reason for my writer's block, what do I do about it???