TK: What it is and how to use it in your novel

When writing your novel, it is sometimes too easy to get bogged down by the small details, losing track of the bigger picture. You may be stuck on the exact phrasing, or need to further research a fact. It may even be a scene that is just unwilling to write itself. When this occurs, your first instinct may be to stop writing in order to correct the problem. If it happens once or twice, no problem. But when you find yourself pausing every few sentences, then this may severely hamper both your inspiration and your process. You may even give up.

This is when TK may rescue your novel.

What is TK?

TK is a place mark used in journalism and editing to denote missing information. It stands for the phrase “to come”, misspelled on purpose, as the letter combination TK (or as it is sometimes written TKTK) is rare win the English language.

For example, a journalist may use TK in the place that they know they will later have to cite a source. This allows them to continue writing their article, not losing the flow of their work, but also as an easy reminder to come back to that particular spot and edit it later.

How can I use TK when writing a novel?

TK can be used in several ways when writing a novel. Similar to the example with the journalist above, you may simply use it to note when you need to add a piece of information such as a name, a description or a fact. You may decide that you need to skip an entire paragraph or even a whole scene. Using TK is an easy way to remind yourself to return later and fix it.

Or might use it to highlight a passage of the story that you need to come back to for more information. Maybe the two scenes are linked and by changing one, you also need to change the second one. Writing TK, will allow you to quickly locate each of these placed and edit them.

You can also use TK while editing your novel. When you come upon something that you know will need to be changed but you prefer to wait until you have finished another section first, just write TK as a reminder.

Whether you are using Microsoft Word or another type of word processing software to write your novel, there is usually the functionality that will allow you to “search” for words within a document. In Microsoft Word, for example, this opens by clicking control+F. And since the letter combination of TK is so rare, searching for those two letters will only bring up the instances that you had included it as a placeholder.

When writing just as when reading, it is best if the author immerses themselves in a story. Allowing the words to flow around you without second guessing them can make you work much more efficiently and quickly than if you decided to stop to look up every detail about every fact, or to use the thesaurus until you find the perfect word.

This is why TK can be a saviour. Once you get into the habit of using it while writing, it will be almost too easy to just write TK and move on from a sticky situation.

In the end, whether you decide to use those particular two letters or find a placeholder of your own, the important thing is that you write consistently, and that you are happy with the results.