TK: The Productivity Trick Every Writer Should Know

Research is a key part of writing, but it can also be incredibly dangerous for your productivity… black hole level dangerous.

Last week, I posted a Write The Novel progress report and talked a bit about researching as I go.

Now, researching is obviously important. But I am the first to admit that researching can equal “no work gets done” faster than you would believe possible (unless, that is, you have the same problem I do.)

Want to make sure you don’t fall into the internet research trap… but still keep track of what information you have yet to track down?

There’s an easy way to do that!

The Internet is One Big Distraction

Absolutely, the Internet is wonderful for research and makes writing with accuracy so much easier than it was for previous generations. But it also has the potential for huge amounts of procrastination, all in the name of research

I need to look up the location of a neighborhood in London? No problem, just hop onto Google… then find a Wikipedia article on Mayfair… get distracted and read the whole thing… follow a link to the Roman conquest of Britain… jump from there to pictures of Roman hairstyles… oh look, there’s a cool YouTube video on that…

Before I know it, two hours have passed, and my cursor is still blinking in the same spot as it was when I went to look up one quick fact.

That’s What TK is For

When I talked about research gaps last week, I mentioned at the end of a paragraph that:

“Every time I know I’ll need more research, I just TK the spot and keep going.”

When I wrote it, I thought it was a throwaway line. But as I’ve since found out, not everyone knows about the brilliance that is the TK. I’m so sorry — that must be fixed immediately!

TK is a lifesaver (and time-saver!) for any writer that needs to research (ie, all of us). It stands for tokum, which is a deliberate misspelling of the words to come. It means that the information there is missing and that you’re going to fill it in later.

The genius of the TK is that it’s a snap to find again. The letters “TK” don’t appear next to each other in any words in English, so you can just plug them directly into your word processor’s find function and every spot that you TK’d will pop right up.

And you don’t have to limit yourself to using them for spots that need research. Stuck on a section and want to move on to the next part? Use TK! Having trouble with a bit of dialogue but don’t want to fuss with it right now? Use TK!

If you often find you get bogged down and distracted when writing, try putting in a TK marker and moving on. You may find your productivity increasing dramatically!