This happened to me in grad school. A woman grad student and I were working for the same thesis professor. She came up with an important result and the prof wanted to write a paper with her about it.
She wrote the paper. The journal editor replied that the paper should be rewritten in proper English. The prof gave it to me and asked me to rewrite the paper.
I did. They resubmitted the paper, and it was published. Look at it this way: You are not writing her dissertation: You are editing it.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.