breakinglight11 | Struggling with thesis writing (Reply)

Struggling a lot with my thesis writing. I took many of your suggestion and told my adviser about some of the mess in my life (specifically the stress of my mother's illness), who was understanding in the extreme, and has practically let me out of all obligation to do any decent work. But I couldn't live with myself if I punked on this. Still, I'm having a hard time. My confidence has really been shaken. I knew the new stuff I'd handed in wasn't great, but my teacher didn't seem to think much of my Tailor of Riddling Way screenplay either, calling it "a Hallmark movie." That really cut me, and I'm still reeling. I knew it wasn't perfect, but I thought it was pretty good. One thing I've really been worrying about is my seeming inability to gauge my own work, as my teachers' opinions rarely seem to match up with mine. What am I going to do in the future when I don't have someone to tell me when something is no good?

But I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out what to do. I have no idea how to rescue the work I've already done. She's offered to let me start something new, but I don't know what that could even be, and I'm terrified it's going to be just as bad. Especially since I can't seem to tell good from bad! And just throwing something onto the page backfired in the last couple of submissions. I just can't hand in something that lame again. But I'm getting paralyzed, and I'm running out of time.