While writing my master's thesis (fortunately defended and approved), I confirmed some suspicions not only about the subject of my research, but also about important things about the act of writing. I took note of some of these things. Below are the main ones:

1. The research topic is always much bigger than we initially think

The ancient Greeks imagined that the sun was the size of a human foot. Today we know that it is more than 100,000 times larger than Earth. What has changed since then? The amount of research and knowledge accumulated, of course. Keeping the proportions in mind, this is more or less what happens to those who set out to write a master's thesis. We often underestimate what we don't know well. Other times we get lost in dreams or diffuse and very abstract ideas, when we contemplate something carefully. It's good to dream, but science and research don't go well with dreamlike approaches. Carlos Salas, a master of good writing, said that the brain is an animal within another animal, and that we need to tame it if we want to make it work for us in something concrete.

This also happens with the research topic: first we have a fantastic vision of it, which takes us to fabulous places and quick and extraordinary solutions; As we advance in the filtering process, we begin to perceive its more prosaic forms and, when we are finally faced with the research problem, which is the theme in the flesh, we see that what is feasible is far below the dream, but it is very more palpable. The research problem is Sultan the cat playing with the paper ball.

2. Knowing the topic in depth is essential

Cato said: rem tene, verba sequentur . In other words, have the thing and the word will follow naturally. The dissertation is not a fictional text (at least, it shouldn't be). Thus, the author is not given much scope for invention. Most of the time, he must regurgitate his readings, although this must have a touch of originality. Knowing the topic in advance and safely is essential for writing to be fluent and sincere.

When I tried to write some chapters without having read the topics well, I found myself inventing things, fantasizing and trying to fit in phrases that seemed more essential than the truth. I soon deleted everything and went back to reading. I realized I wasn't prepared to write about it. The worst thing is that this happens with undesirable frequency. Just let your guard down a little and the Chimera sits next to you. The best way to avoid this is to keep in close contact with good reading, and follow others who have already dealt effectively with the topic of interest.

3 – It’s good to have people to talk to about the text

It's strange to think: no one has ever seen their own face directly, nor heard their own voice from a distance. Of course, we can say that we have seen ourselves in a mirror or some other polished surface; or that we have already heard a recording of our own voice. This may be true, but it only proves that we saw or heard an external record of our image and voice. That's another thing. We are relational beings. We need others to be who we are and understand ourselves.

Language itself is a board of symbols in which each move only makes sense if there is an interlocutor to appreciate it and respond to it with another appropriate move. The execution of the writing, to a large extent, presents itself as a monologue immersed in a confusing polyphony; At this point, more or less inexplicable intuitions come to our heads, memories of previous readings and conversations on the subject, clichés that have haunted us for years, in short, the flow of consciousness in all its richness and ambiguity.

When we exchange ideas with a qualified interlocutor — it could be a supervisor, a colleague, or someone else capable — we have the opportunity to refine our own ideas, which occur to us in a seemingly inextricable way. Eventually, this is so good that, just in the effort to explain a passage of the text we are writing, we ourselves immediately notice some inconsistencies or obscurities that need correction. In other words, the other is the mirror we need to see ourselves.

4. Routine leads to inspiration

A little progress is progress. It is not possible to write a text of approximately one hundred pages, with quality, in just a few days. The idea that the dissertation results from a long gestation with a rapid birth is very attractive, but hardly achievable. In practice, writing a dissertation is more like the trickle of a spring than a storm in the middle of the night. The issue of the blank page was already resolved by Hemingway. He said that there is only one remedy against it: start writing. Simple, but difficult. But that's it. No one can write a work, mediocre or brilliant, if they don't start, and if they don't continue until the end. Discipline is inspiring.

5. It is important to respect the reader and establish an honest bond with them

Writing is a form of interpersonal communication. One of the most important, by the way. But, for some reason, it is not understood that way at first glance, and it is not uncommon for it to be used as an instrument to torture the reader (and I don't think it's a good idea to torture the Bank).

No one would take seriously someone who, in a conversation, started saying things that made no sense or were completely out of place (and, worse, didn't stop talking). But, in writing, perhaps due to the lack of item 3 (above), one can believe that this psychedelic trip is possible to the detriment of the poor reader. If we don't strictly police ourselves, we start writing completely unreasonable things just to fill in the blank spaces on the screen and bulk up the final work.

It is necessary to always return to the text, re-read it carefully and put yourself in the reader's shoes, to purge these annoying hallucinations. In doing so, we often realized what an undeserved punishment we were inflicting on the benevolent individual who was willing to read our work. In other words, to write well, you have to stop writing or delete a lot of things.

6. The dissertation resembles a short story or a novel, never a novel

Information today is not a scarce matter. On the contrary, there is too much information available to the researcher — especially in social sciences — when carrying out a bibliographic census. Therefore, it is necessary not to write too much or talk about impertinent things. A master's thesis, as methodologists teach, should focus on just one central problem, although surrounded by subproblems. Opening too many work fronts can be a terrible mistake — one that unfortunately almost all of us make, and whose remedy is re-reading and downsizing. What should be avoided most is raising questions for which there will either be no solution in the text, or, if there is, it will be too poor.

Therefore, it is best to avoid references that will lead nowhere — I confess that I was unable to follow this truth to the letter. Chekhov, the master of the short narrative, said that “if a gun appears in a story, it has to go off.” This also happens with the dissertation. Each element that appears in the text must be functional. From the words used, to the sentences, to the periods, to the paragraphs, to the items, to the chapters, everything must be in good harmony, contributing to the solution of the research problem. If a passage of the text sounds odd to us, it probably is.

7. Intertextuality is the environment of legal research

Each text we write is a reinterpretation of reality, illuminated by the texts we have had previous contact with. Total originality does not exist. Particularly in the field of law, research is very dependent on texts.

Although there are ample possibilities for direct legal research into reality, with data, numbers, statistics and even experiments, the truth is that our academy is still deeply dominated by the culture of bibliographical research and intertextual writing. Therefore, it is very important to read good texts to produce good texts.

After all, writing is, to a large extent, the imitation of what has been read. Choosing the correct readings, with the help of the advisor, is essential. On the one hand, this avoids unnecessary reading and, on the other, it constitutes the community of ideas that we want to be part of.

8. A place to write is essential

“Great things happen when man and mountain meet.” This phrase, by William Blake, is so good that it has become commonplace, and we often hear it even in comedy films. What Blake meant was that the peace of the mountains offers the subject the necessary atmosphere to think deeply about big things, beyond the mundane. In fact, the Bible is full of passages in which inspirations, visions, direct conversations with God occurred on the top of some mountains (Tabor, Horeb, Sinai, Carmel, Olive trees, etc.).

Pagan thought also shares the idea that the mountain is inspiring. Just think of Mount Parnassus. But you don't have to climb a mountain to find an inspiring place. Fortunately, with the technologies we have today, it is possible to transform an apartment bedroom into a stimulating environment for thought. Everyone will know how to do this. I personally like that it is something close to Nature and that it has a table full of paper and pens. In any case, the important thing is that the writing space is well delimited from the rest of daily life.

9. We write while we sleep

We really don't know anything about how our brain works. It is a stranger that lives within us and yet is also responsible for who we are. What is certain is that he does not follow a CLT standard of working hours.

Anyone reading and thinking about a problem certainly has a story to tell about flashes that came “out of nowhere” and seemed too interesting to miss. This happens, I suppose, because the brain is capricious and resembles those retired action movie heroes, who are only willing to return to work after much insistence from the fragile victim who needs it. But when they come back… they come with everything. During sleep, many insights end up occurring and some of them remain in our memory as soon as we wake up.

Not everything is brilliant, of course, but many things from these sleep reminiscences can be put to good use. For this, it is also very important to have a notebook, so that you can write down these ideas as soon as they arise, because they are very fleeting.

10. Everything is history

No one has yet invented a better way of communicating a topic than narrative, or storytelling . In Portuguese, we do not have a well-established difference between words used to designate a real narrative and a fictional one. It is true that Câmara Cascudo defended the use of the distinction between “history” and “story”, as in the English history/story , but this is not always practiced. What is certain is that even the narrative of a real event (which should be the case of scientific research) can benefit from the technical and stylistic resources of good fiction literature.

Just because it is research does not mean that writing needs to be boring. I even think that, on the contrary, it shouldn't be. Furthermore, the situation of someone who is writing a dissertation is very similar to that of a novelist, although naturally there are differences in method, purposes and limits for both tasks. To make the production of the dissertation a pleasant task and deliver something very readable to the reader, I don't see why one cannot prudently employ some storytelling strategies. I believe this greatly improves the writing and reading atmosphere.

Finally, although I didn't write a novel, throughout the work I was very reminded of EL Doctorow's lesson: “Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as the headlights reach, but you can make the entire trip like this.”

Nazareno CM Reis