I am late to this, I know, but I am on the final straight now and this might keep me at it.
I am researching for a professional doctorate, so the structure is different to a traditional PhD. It lasts 3 years still (although they have taken pity on future cohorts and are giving them 4 years - boooooo!) and is done around a full-time job. It is roughly 80-90 thousand words, split up into 5 documents. The documents are submitted as we go along and are marked at doctorate standard from the start - so no learning curve ... it's instant sink or swim! Our final document is the one on which we are vivad.
I have designed my documents so they fit together as chapters of a continuous piece of research. I have just finished my chapter 4, and will be starting the final chapter next week (having this week off!).
I decided, because I'm an idiot, to draft legislation as part of mine - so the 30,000 word final chapter is really going to be significantly more writing because of the annexed legislation.
First thing first, though, I am starting work on a philosophical framework mixing legal theory and the rule of law. So nothing too difficult (!)
I imagine the next 6/7 months are going to be quite the rollercoaster - and you will be able to read all the highs and lows here!