To TK or Not to TK?
By Tracy Hahn-Burkett | March 31, 2016 |
Image by Stefan Chinof via DeviantArt.com
How much do you TK? That’s the question.
TK in a manuscript means “to come.” So if you’re writing a scene in a historical novel set in, say, New Jersey in 1777, and you’re missing necessary facts but don’t want to stop writing at that moment in order to find the relevant information, your draft might look like this:
Mary inclined her head toward the parlor, letting him know they were not alone. The [TK-appropriate rank soldier] hesitated, then turned and walked outside. Mary checked the pocket of her skirt again to make sure the [TK-medium for message] was still there, then followed him onto the porch.
You know where you’re heading with the story and what your characters are doing, but you haven’t yet worked out some of the details. So you drop a few TKs and keep going.
Do you TK when you write? Or does writing with TKs make you feel like you’re preparing a savory recipe like Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic but omitting the garlic, the wine, the herbs and anything else that contains any flavor? In which case, why bother making the recipe at all?
I’ve always been in the latter category; I’ve never liked any but the most particular TKs. I prefer to do my research first, then draft. Why? I like to feel like I really know my characters, the pieces of their lives, the settings. I want to have gathered all of the ingredients that could factor into my characters’ story when I write, because I want to know everything they know. Of course, there may be a small factual detail here or there that needs to be filled in later—for example, how to translate a brief foreign phrase. But for the most part, even if I need to know the weather on a particular day, I’ll look that up first because I’m going to write a scene differently if it’s rainy and cold than if it’s sunny and warm.
You see where this is going, right? I came to a point in my writing where this approach, which had once served me well, began to hold me back in a big way.
I’d been scribbling notes in contemplation of the next draft of my WIP for, well, let’s just call it a very long time. This draft was going to be a major rewrite: I’d ripped out a huge piece of the plot, and needed to write a new section of the book in order to replace it. I’d determined on a basic level what had to happen in the story, but I faced a problem: the characters needed to journey to a place I’d never been and to which it would not be possible for me to travel, and they needed to do this at a time in recent history in which very specific, difficult-to-discern conditions were in place. I was eager to get to work on the draft, but my enthusiasm was for the writing—which I didn’t feel I could begin until I completed a substantial amount of new research. And I had no desire to conduct more research on top of the substantial amount I’d already completed for this book. I just wanted to write.
So, because I didn’t possess the knowledge I needed to write my characters’ experiences, for months I accomplished…nothing.
I can be prone to inefficiency in my writing process, but this was ridiculous.
Knowing how frustrated I was that I wasn’t writing, an author friend suggested that I plunge ahead and write the draft anyway, using TKs. Horrified, I argued that I couldn’t do it. How could I write events, descriptions and actions without knowing what I was talking about? (Shouldn’t we leave that to some of our presidential candidates?) But she persisted.
“You do know what it’s like. You read. You watch movies. You listen to people. You have a sense. Write what comes to you, drop TKs everywhere, and get the story out. You can go back and fill in details later when you’ve done the research, but this way you write now.”
I considered her words for days. The more I thought, the more her words made sense. What I yearned to do was to commit to paper my characters’ story—what they did, why they did it, what happened as a result and what happened after that. I surely knew enough about where they were going to write the outline of this story, like the black outlines on a white coloring book page. I could fill in the colors later. If, at a later point, I had to make adjustments to what I’d written, well, that’s what future, hopefully less drastic rewrites would be for.
In January, I began my new draft. I’m now 300 pages in, and I’m beginning that new section. Almost every word from this point on will be new material. There will probably be TKs on every page, because I’ll be doing the research concurrent with the writing. My frustration has disappeared as I’ve produced words on the page, and I’m actually a little excited to begin writing the new section without knowing everything I need to know. I’ve been working on this WIP for a long time, and being forced to work outside of my comfort zone will shake things up a bit. It may even turn out to be a positive development for both me and my manuscript.
How will this experiment turn out? I’ll have to let you know. Results TK.
[coffee]
Tracy Hahn-Burkett is a writer and public policy advocate who has written everything from speeches for a U.S. senator to texts seeking proof-of-life from her kids in college. She’s published dozens of essays, columns, articles, reviews and a story, and teaches writing for advocacy. She currently lives in the Washington, D.C. area with her husband, cat, and dog, and she is revising her first novel. Her website is TracyHahnBurkett.com. You can find her on Threads as @tracyhahnburkett.
Tracy,
Wonderful advice. I didn’t know there was an official name for them, but I’ve been inserting TKs in my manuscripts ever since my first year doing NaNo.
First, let me point out that I’m a plotter who loves research and outlines. I like all my ducks in a row before ever taking pen in hand, or keyboard under fingers, as the case may be.
But for my first year in NaNo, I took a short story I’d written and decided to expound upon it — a western set in the 1880’s. I’m a slow writer, and for me, the month was an exercise in just getting the story out. In the frenzy of writing 1667 words/day, I didn’t have time to stop and research, so I’d put in TKs, except I didn’t call them that. No, I’d put stuff like [Insert Blacksmith tools here] or [You call yourself a writer? Next time, do more research!].
Ever since then, I don’t hesitate to throw in a TK when I hit an impasse. It keeps the juices flowing, and in the short time I’ve been doing this, I’ve learned that most writing is re-writing anyway. I can catch those TKs on the second pass.
Or the third. Or fourth. Or fifth…
Thanks for validating my lack of research with a name.
Exactly, Mike. It’s all about the rewriting. Imagine if we were only confined to one revision! (Shudders with horror.)
I’m a pantser, so my ducks are never in a row for the drafting, but I do like all of them to be swimming somewhere in the pond. Now I’ll see what it’s like when I send some of them in a little later in the process.
Refusing to TK anything in the first draft contributed to my abandoning my historical novel. My Evernote account hit 1000 notes while my page count never got beyond a tenth of that. In my defense, the first draft was all about writing myself into the scene. If a character in 1750 enters a Bristol tavern soaking wet – where do his wet things go? Or does he stay in them? Does the table he’s sitting at include a candle? Or would that form of lighting have been too expensive for a simple taproom? Aaargh – such uncertainty, and the poor guy hasn’t even had his ale yet… or should that be cider, considering the locale…
Writing TKs would make me insane! I’m like you, I want to know what’s going on in the character’s lives as I write the story. Also, research always exposes some new plot element that I hadn’t considered before. For example, my (now complete) middle grade novel set around the 1968 loss of the submarine USS Scorpion has an eleven-year-old boy as the protagonist. Naturally, TV is a big part of his life. So I researched what TV shows would be popular during his time (I am not quite that old). I discovered, by accident, that the Jacques Cousteau Undersea Adventures series aired for the first time during that period. I found the episodes online and watched them, managing to fit them in as great foreshadowing or symbols of the coming disaster. Had I written in TK for the TV shows, it would have involved a major rewrite.
So, yes, I prefer to research beforehand or stop mid-scene to check a fact. It doesn’t slow me down, but fuels my creativity with bits of interesting facts. Besides, as a Detroiter, it would have been embarassing to write “TK” instead of knowing Al Kaline’s batting average mid-season 1968.
Ron, there was an actual baseball player named Al Kaline? Too funny, especially since the sport is “base”ball.
Ron, you’ve identified the exact reason I didn’t start this draft for so long. The research could and almost certainly would affect the plot so much, how could I write before it was done? My inner editor was harassing me before I’d even penned a word: “Your plot’s not good enough. You’re wrong. You’ll have to rewrite everything.”
Well, maybe I will in the new section. I’m gambling that some of the framework will be okay, though, and if I do change/add/delete, I’ll have a very good sense of why I’m doing what I’m doing at that point.
BUT, this is the process I’m using right now because it’s working for me. That doesn’t mean it will work for everyone. You have to do what’s right for you.
Congrats on getting over the TK hurdle, Tracy! Back when I was actually writing (*hangs head*), I did both: I used TKs when research was going to slow me down too much, but would also do enough advance research to get me to the time and place I was writing about. Every now and then I’d stop mid-sentence to research some more. But as you so eloquently suggest, these details are not necessarily the same as, or vital to, characters’ stories: what they did, why they did it, what happened as a result and what happened after that.
Thanks Sharon! I do the mid-sentence research occasionally, too, but those rabbit holes can be tempting, can’t they?
I hope you find time to write again at some point!
I do it both ways, Tracy (but I don’t use “TK”). I think it depends on the flow of the writing of a particular story. Sometimes stopping to research does fuel the creativity as Ron says, and I prefer stopping and refueling. Other times I write on and then during the end-of-day read make a page of notations or specific questions before continuing that scene or chapter the next day. I need to keep the writing and researching flexible because the researching goes on throughout all the drafts. I love researching so the stop and go can be wonderfully productive.
Paula, I think what you wrote about flexibility is really important, both on this particular point and on process in general. Figure out what works for you and go with that. But know that that process can change, point to point, draft to draft, year to year, book to book.
Thanks for injecting that into the discussion!
Like Mike, I had no idea there was a name for this! I , too, use the parentheses method, or lately, an n.b. in bold type, note to self, fill in here. I do it not only for technical things but for emotions I can’t access at that moment. The ‘flags’ help me to see the places where I need to go deeper in another revision. I’ve also become very fond of neon-colored post-its! Thanks for this, Tracy.
Thanks Susan. And how did anyone read, write or get any work done involving paper before Post-Its?!
I couldn’t live without my TKs! And can I just point out why it is good to use that particular combination of letters? It’s because they are the only two letters that never appear next to each other (or so I’ve been told), thus making them easy to find in a search. Welcome to the TK bandwagon!
Thanks for answering my question, even though I hadn’t voiced it yet.
Thank you for adding that, Charlotte! I’d read that a long time ago, but I’d forgotten all about it.
Also, I find it helpful to bold my TKs in my mss, though I didn’t do it in the example in this post. It takes an extra second or two, but you’re less likely to miss it when you go back.
Excellent! Years ago I went to a workshop with Jean Rikhoff, who gave the same advice in different terms: “When you’re writing along and come to a hole, write ‘hole’ and keep on going.” Like Tracy, she wanted us to avoid everything that might stop the flow. We have enough discouragements without adding to them unnecessarily.
I agree!
I also didn’t know that there’s a name for these. I’ve been doing this for ages, and I think it’s a fairly instinctive thing to [insert something here]. I use square brackets on their own, since they’re easy to find.
Often it’s just a quick fact, or a name I haven’t settled on yet, but it could be a whole scene. [more here] is also a favorite.
Like Mike Swift, NaNo made me appreciate the TK. When you’re on a tight deadline, you write. No time for skipping off to Google, or those black holes, Wikipedia and TV Tropes. TKs definitely serve a purpose. Thanks for putting a name to them!
I also didn’t know that there’s a name for these. I’ve been doing this for ages, and I think it’s a fairly instinctive thing to [insert something here]. I use square brackets on their own, since they’re easy to find.
Often it’s just a quick fact, or a name I haven’t settled on yet, but it could be a whole scene. [more here] is also a favorite.
Like Mike Swift, NaNo made me appreciate the TK. When you’re on a tight deadline, you write. No time for skipping off to Google, or those black holes, Wikipedia and TV Tropes. TKs definitely serve a purpose. Thanks for putting a name to them!
I still haven’t tried NaNo, but I can see how TKs would be essential to the effort.
Like the others, ‘So THAT’s what they call it!’
My current WIP is set in a city that was subjected to a major overhaul twenty years after my story, with streets moved and renamed, buildings torn down… I have a map from the decade of the story, but it’s cumbersome. So I find myself writing, ‘He crossed (Rue de WhateverTheHeck – check the map) and ducked down (ThatLittleAlleyway – check the map)’ I don’t feel so strange now. Thanks!
Geography–especially past geography–is a critical use for TKs. I’ve got a similar set of issues in another section of my WIP, and I can’t even face those until I’ve got the whole book much closer to where I want it. That will be a week of maps and Google Earth and who knows what else.
I use TBD, which means To Be Determined. I picked up the practice as a technical writer, writing manuals for software that hadn’t been completed yet.
That works, too!
My TK is a @@. My first drafts are spotted with @@. Like Tracy, I started as a pantser, but over the years and a few novels in progress I learned a couple of tricks that are useful to me. First, I have to know the historical period and major events. I have to know my protagonist and how and why he fits into the historical events. I do a lot of reading: and one day while reading I have a lightbulb moment: YUP. Then I start to write, and leave my @@ for checking later when the writing drive runs dry.
Then I refer back to the print books which jam my shelves behind this desk until I find the answers to the @@. By that time, while reading, a hundred new ideas are fighting to be written into the story line.
One stage of the day’s work feeds another stage, so that I can hardly find time in the day to get it all done.
When I reach ‘The End’, the hard work begins. I start by finding all the leftover @@s and filling in any missing details. And then I start editing to cut the words from 150,000 to 100,000. The editing process takes three times longer than the draft.
What a game we play.
I just saved this as “Writers of Southern Nevada” to the Writers of Southern Nevada Facebook page. You know, just want credit for being such a swell guy. :-)
I use WHAT when or TYPE (as in type of dress or hat) when I’m not sure of a fact. I love the TK idea and glad to know why it’s used. In earlier drafts of my WIP I spent a lot of time looking up details that never made it into the present detail. So, I’m trying to avoid unnecessarily stopping the flow of the work for things I can figure out later. But I agree Tracy, somethings you do need to know ahead of time because they’ll alter what happens in the scene. Enjoyed this post and hope you get that draft completed!
Thank you, Carol!
Thanks for a post that speaks to my current writing dilemma: the black hole of historical research. Like you, I’m currently revising my first historical fiction novel. I wrote it as a “pantser” and decided I would plan my second novel. I took a course, did a ton of research, created a chapter by chapter outline and…I keep stalling. I’ll give the TK a try and hope it lights a firecracker!
Ah, can a pantser convert to a plotter? That’s the real eternal question!
Very enjoyable, informative post, Tracy, Good luck with your WIP! It sounds like an experiment that may work. Or at least give you a chance to get the day’s words out. I guess we all come up with things that work for us, or sometimes don’t work as well as we’d like. I can’t put the details off until I’m done. Just can’t. But I can put them off until the end of the day, or tomorrow. So, I write a word or phrase or description that comes closest to what I think it should be, and then I highlight that in yellow. By the end of the day, or the next day, I do the research needed to get it right. Sometimes it’s not actually a problem with data or accuracy, but I just haven’t got the phrasing the way I want it. Mainly, though, since there’s very little historical detail (although sometimes some science-y stuff) necessary for my spec fic stories, it’s not a big problem for me.
You’re not the only one who takes that approach, Nikki. I can see how that would work well for concrete details.
Oh, I definitely do this, although I never knew there was a proper editorial name for this technique – thanks for the lesson!
My biggest challenge is maintaining momentum when I write, so TK’s help me plow through many situations where I could easily come to a grinding halt by obsessing too much about something that can actually be resolved later.
I also use lots of notes-to-self when I know I haven’t nailed a passage, but want to keep moving forward. Those notes tend to not be very diplomatic, like “Make this suck less, you @#$%^&”. Hey, it’s a know-your-audience thing.
I can’t recall where I saw this suggestion, but I use NQR (Not Quite Right) when I’ve got a word, phrase or sentence that feels wildly off but I need to keep going. Quicker and kinder than “make this suck less,” but I recognized the impulse. ;-) Momentum is so crucial!
NQR -ooh, I like it! Thanks!
Ha, Keith, “make this suck less” is what I write in the margins when I’m reading the draft later and I’m trying not to avert my eyes because I’m so appalled.
I never heard of a ‘TK’. I used to just color the area bold red where I had a question or that I wasn’t in a position to answer right away (no internet to research, for example). I’d go back later and look for the bold red text and fill in the blanks.
Later, I read about someone who used brackets to do the same thing. A bracket is one keystroke on the keyboard and far easier to do than making things bold and red. I started doing [info I needed to look up/fill in] and driving on. Then, I can just do a search for the bracket and fill in the needed info, etc. everywhere I find them.
Anne, any method that works is good. There’s nothing magical about the letters “TK!”
When I notice nailprints in my palms (for the last week) instead of new pages in my WIP, I know it’s time to take a step back. Mostly, it’s caused by exactly the kind of frustration you expressed. Flexibility and balance can get thrown off so easily. Reading your post and the comments today got me back on track again. Thanks.
So glad I could help, Sandra. Nail prints in your palms is probably better than my signs, which include snapping at my family and whining at anyone who will listen. :)
Tracy, I will definitely be interested to hear how this turns out for you! I tend to use brackets, like many people here, but I do find it’s a balancing act (I’m also writing historical fiction) between the things I can look up later–I resorted to writing a separate list at one point–and the things I need *right now* to keep going.
In an ideal world I would love to have all the research done before drafting, but I discovered that I hit a certain level of overwhelm, and that there were also things I didn’t know I needed to know until I got to them in the story. Needless to say as soon as I reach my next milestone I will be taking a while to go back to researching and fill in a lot of the (now more specific) TKs…
Tracy, I’m collaborating on a novel set in the ‘30s, and my partner and I did a fair amount of research on some customs, and dress and historical facts. (Well, he did most of the heavy lifting on social issues, dates and historical figures, and I made sure the cocktails being served in speakeasies I discussed were actually around then.)
But as we gained momentum in the book, I became less concerned with historical accuracy than with character and plot movement, so there are many more TKs now (including the needed bursts of garbled English and missing Italian coming from a madman in the work). We got a little bogged down in some complex historical issues that slowed the narrative drive, so we’ll have to go back and trim see of those, which probably should have been TKs in the first place.
Just as an aside, I do like how you can use the Scrivener software (which we didn’t use in this case) to put in relevant story images, factual URLs and notes that you can collect on the fly while you are writing a story, and then easily return to them for source material for your TKs, stuff that you can immediately pull into the story from the software’s Resources repository.
But for the cocktails, I just made them at home. Source materials are best understood directly.
Tom, I think it’s an actual rule that cocktails require immediate, experiential research.
It’s interesting that you mention Scrivener in this context. I’ve been intrigued by it for quite some time now; I’m going to have to look into learning it for my next ms.
Tom, I also like Scrivener for that. I dump a lot into comments–questions and things I’m just not sure of. I also highlight words etc that I’m just not convinced are best. Then when I go back and polish, I work on these areas.
Tracy, thanks for this advice. I have a terrible habit of reaching a point, needing information and stopping the writing process to go look it up on the Internet, especially if it’s a location issue. Will try the TK to see if it helps.
I use Scrivener a lot and something new about it with this post.
I have enjoyed this conversation. Apparently historical fiction novelists are prone to this “Gotta know this now!” syndrome–but we’re not alone. I most recently spent quite a bit of time chasing down the type of escalators in use in a department store in 1950. Just a small detail that will add nuance to the scene. But in the process (i.e., asking FB friends) I found more awesome experts as well as potential readers for more book. Besides, research is fun too–isn’t it?
Yes! I did the TK thing on my first historical, which I wrote during NanoWriMo. I couldn’t slow down to put many historical details in. But I did get the plot and basic characters points in. Now I’m adding more detail as a final revision.
I’ve never heard of the term TK, but it’s absolutely the way I write. My general rule on research while writing is:
If the answer will change the way the scene is written, stop and do the research. If the answer will give me authenticity, detail, or depth, research it later.
The majority of the time, it’s the latter. So my draft is full of things that look like:
* He pulled his [insert type of gun] and pointed it at the demon.
* The lemur gave a [what sound do lemurs make, anyway?] and turned away.
And even:
* I stared at the creature and rolled my eyes. “Yeah, well, [insert witty quip here].”
If I tried to get everything perfect the first time through, I’d never get to the end of the story! Thanks for the post, and for giving me the official name for doing this.
Jo, I really like those rules! If nothing else, I think Tracy’s post has us all thinking (and mostly agreeing) about this process.
I’d never heard of the term TK, either, but I do use the process of writing and inserting notes referencing things I need to research. Like the examples Jo gave, the things I TK are specific, like finding out about a gun, and I can write around that and keep the scene going. That is especially important when the scene is really going well and I don’t want to stop for research. For bigger issues, like where to set a scene, I do like to research first and usually scout locations. That is relatively easy for me as my stories are set in Dallas, or around Dallas, so I don’t have to travel far. :-)
Like others I never heard of TKs before this post. The comments with techniques that others use were also helpful. I think I will incorporate TKs into my writing.
Thanks for the post.