Dissertations, theses, master's projects...Ever wish you'd used a different topic?

In My Humble Opinion
21

I was so heartily sick of my master’s thesis that I considered dropping out of school, changing my name and moving to a different country. I cannot believe what a stupid topic I picked.

But then, that happens in other things, too. I once made a dress from a rather challenging pattern. By the time I actually finished the dress, hemmed and buttons on, I was so sick of that fabric I couldn’t actually stand to wear it.

So the thesis thing probably shouldn’t count, 'cause I’m just like that with whatever.

On, and on writing projects in general? I have published four novels. With each one, at the time I sent it in to my editor, I thought it was great. Then I got it back with copyeditor’s notes and started thinking, “What? Who wrote this shit? [and I don’t mean the copy edits] Were they on crack when they paid me for this drivel? I want to do it over and get it right.” Then I would hit “acceptance,” as in, “Okay, it’s not Tolstoy, it’s genre fiction, and it’s okay. With the nice cover, it might even sell a few copies.” By this time I would be working on the next book, and so I would not make the same mistakes again (except I would give my protagonist a different name–did it not occur to me I was writing a series, and that name was going to seriously annoy me?)

Then, about the time the book came out, I was not only afraid to open it, I actively loathed it, especially in comparison to the new one I was writing. Of course this was when I had to go out and PROMOTE the book, and tell people in bookstores how wonderful it was.

Geez, that was hard.

And I did this with every. Single. Book.

22

Heavens yes. Especially when it became obvious that the company where I was actually doing my research was not going to allow me to administer the final survey. That survey was intended to indicate whether or not the anticipated changes had occurred.

Long story short, as soon as I knew I told my advisor that the final survey wouldn’t be administered. Since this happened just two months before my deadline, I had visions of having to request an extension etc. But I posed it this way to my advisor–I said I thought it might be even more interesting without the final survey results because that was sort of telling in its own right. Fortunately he agreed.