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Nathan

Eight Years

Daily Post

April 18th 2017: I published the first daily Viva Survivors post.

April 18th 2025: today!

What’s in-between? A lot of words.

 

It’s been one of the best decisions I’ve made to do this daily blog. It helps me to think through what I need to say at work, finds new ways of exploring the viva, unpack questions that people ask and also just help me think.

I’ve had almost 3000 attempts to say something helpful. I’ve been writing Viva Survivors for over twice the length of my PhD journey.

After eight years a few things occur to me:

  • Writing a daily blog isn’t a lot of work so much as it is a lot of practice.
  • Writing a daily blog is a great way to develop ideas.
  • Writing a daily blog is not a fool-proof plan for fame and fortune!

And writing a daily blog for eight years is a lot like a PhD in many ways: the amount of work required is enormous but spread out over a long period of time. It can be easy to tell yourself at the beginning that it’s impossible because the scale is vast – but it’s also easy to tell yourself at the end that you just kind of bumbled your way to success because you can’t remember so much of what you’ve done.

In both cases you can only do it by doing it. It only exists because someone did the work.

I’m very happy to be eight years in on this ongoing project and looking forward to many more. I hope the same is true for you dear reader, whoever you are and whatever your project.

Thanks for reading!

 

PS: On this eighth anniversary post I have to mention the first issue of Viva Survivors Select – my curated zine series drawing from the daily blog archive! Issue 01 shares twenty posts from 2017 on viva prep, confidence and the viva process. It feels great to start an exciting project like this but it’s made doubly exciting by doing it around the anniversary of the blog. Check out the issue here – and again, thank you for reading 🙂

Nathan

The 2000th Viva Survivors Post

Daily Post

(I couldn’t think of a snappy name!)

Except for the odd Christmas Day off here and there, I’ve now written and published 2000 days of posts on:

And a lot more! There are pages for resources, the old Viva Survivors Podcast and links to books and ebooks if that’s something that you need.

There’s even a link (click here!) if you just want to read a random post from the last five and a half years of writing.

 

Thank you for reading. Thank you for subscribing. Thank you for supporting the blog when you share it, donate via the Ko-Fi link on the site or buy a book.

Thank you to all of my workshop and webinar participants. Thanks to many colleagues and friends who have supported me along the way.

And thanks to all of you and all of that I’ll keep going! 🙂

Nathan

Everyone Makes Miskates

Daily Post

Corrections aren’t a sign you’ve necessarily done something wrong in your thesis. The request from your examiners is a helping hand to make your thesis as good as it could reasonably be, given that your thesis is a permanent contribution to knowledge. They want to help.

Most PhD candidates are asked to complete corrections. This doesn’t mean that most candidates are failing somehow or that most candidates don’t care.

It shows that writing is hard. Writing long, involved texts – books! – is hard.

Practice helps. Feedback helps. Investing time purposefully to get better, of course, helps. Proofreading and editing and revising all help.

And after all of that you can still miss things.

When you’re asked to complete corrections, as you most likely will be, just remember that it’s another part of the PhD process. You didn’t do anything wrong; you now have the chance to make things better.

 

A short post that occurred to me today, as I sit slightly stunned that this is my 1500th daily post on the blog – and I remember the many, many mistakes I’ve made over the course of nearly 250,000 words!

Nathan

Two Hundred!

Daily Post

Every now and then I blink my eyes in amazement when I realise I’ve published so-many-hundred blog posts here. Last week I did something similar and celebrated delivering my 200th Viva Survivor session. I was first asked in 2009 to deliver a “viva survival” workshop, and for a few years it was just an occasional thing I did. I really enjoyed it, and got helpful feedback, but it wasn’t my passion.

Then something changed. I don’t know exactly what, but something hooked me, and Viva Survivor became the thing I looked forward to more than anything. I went from doing four or five in a year to doing ten. Then last year I did fifty! About two years ago this blog became an integral part of the feedback loop: ideas and questions from sessions become posts, posts help me to work out ideas that then help more people in the Viva Survivor sessions.

In two hundred sessions I’ve helped 3601 PhD candidates, travelled to universities all over the UK and found something that I’m eager to do forever. Thank you to everyone who’s invited me to share the session, everyone who I’ve met along the way and to all of you who read this blog and help me share ideas that help others get ready for their viva.

I’m already looking forward to session 300 🙂