Week 3 Lab: The Week the Dissertation Stalled

A first-person narrative lab — write the diary entry of an ABD student on the exact week their dissertation went quiet

8 March 2027

Solo. Write a single diary entry — 400 to 600 words, first person, present tense — from an invented ABD (all-but-dissertation) student, set on the exact day or week their dissertation work quietly stopped. Not a summary of their situation: the actual entry, in their voice, on that day.

Before the lab#

Read week 3’s lecture and the Council of Graduate Schools material it links. Come with a rough shape for your character: field, year, what they’ve already finished, what’s left.

In the lab#

Write the draft in the room. This is deliberately timed and unplanned — the lab’s own argument is that stalling rarely announces itself in advance, so writing it cold is closer to the real thing than writing it from a neat outline. Fifteen minutes of quiet writing, then read a paragraph aloud to whoever’s next to you and take two minutes of their reaction before you finish the entry.

Submitting#

The finished entry, individually, with a one-line footer stating what external event (if any) would need to happen for this character to write tomorrow’s entry — without saying whether they do. Due Friday 12 March, 5pm.

This one’s solo — it’s a personal voice, and a group diary entry reads like neither person meant it.