What do you do when you’re writing away, and you realize you need a statistic or fact that you saw last week? And what do you do when you know there is THE perfect word that should be included in your writing, but it eludes you?
Inexperienced writers may be tempted to stop everything to find the missing data point or word, only to find it difficult to get back into the flow of their writing.
Experienced writers know that you need a way to keep writing and come back to the missing element AFTER the flow of writing has ceased, or when it’s time for editing and review.
But how do you keep track of those omissions so that you’ll be able to finish the work you’ve started?
As I was having breakfast with a National Speakers Association colleague and author, she told me about her best tip for keeping the flow going. Jan Spence, author of TK*, suggested that she’s used the shorthand “TK” in the body of the writing.
I did a quick search on Google and found that TK is short for “to come”—something that will be completed later. It’s perfect for authors, since the appearance of T and K together in the English language is uncommon, so provides for an easy way to search to find those missing factoids.
As writers, we need to do everything we can to get into “flow” and stay there, since that is when writing is most efficient and effective (and actually fun!). Thanks, Jan, for this great tip for authors!
*TK = Jan’s book is titled Cheer on Your Team. I kept in this note so you can see how I used this tip in writing this post!