Write ‘TK’ for Missing Facts: NaNoWriMo Tip #14

By Jason Boog 

coryd23.jpgWhen working on your National Novel Writing Month manuscript, don’t let unknown facts slow down your writing. Instead of inventing facts or plagiarizing somebody work, just type TK and keep writing.

Novelist Cory Doctorow shared the simple and practical tip at Lifehacker: “[D]o what journalists do: type ‘TK’ where your fact should go, as in ‘The Brooklyn bridge, all TK feet of it, sailed into the air like a kite.’ ‘TK’ appears in very few English words (the one I get tripped up on is “Atkins”) so a quick search through your document for ‘TK’ will tell you whether you have any fact-checking to do afterwards. And your editor and copyeditor will recognize it if you miss it and bring it to your attention.”

This is our fourteenth NaNoWriMo Tip of the Day. As writers around the country join the writing marathon this month, we will share one piece of advice or writing tool to help you cope with this daunting project. For more writing advice, read our interview with Doctorow.