#### The Magic of TK - Steven Pressfield | Website of author and historian, Steven Pressfield. (highlights) > [!Book]- Metadata > **The Magic of TK** de _Steven Pressfield | Website of author and historian, Steven Pressfield._ > > Category: #articles > Document tags: #writing > > On Shawn’s storygrid.com this week there was such a great piece that I’m ripping it off lock-stock-and-barrel here to share with my peeps. It’s on the subject of writing a first draft. Matt Quirk is a novelist (The 500, The Directive, Cold Barrel Zero) and a friend and client of Shawn’s. Here’s his secret > > → https://stevenpressfield.com/2016/05/the-magic-of-tk/ > >  **Use TK**. This is the essential lubricant of the rough first draft. It’s a habit I learned from working as a reporter, but didn’t realize the novel-writing magic of it until I read [this advice](http://www.locusmag.com/Features/2009/01/cory-doctorow-writing-in-age-of.html) from Cory Doctorow. TK is an editing mark that means “to come” and is equivalent to leaving a blank or brackets in the text (It’s TK, not TC, because editorial marks are often misspelled intentionally so as not to confuse them with final copy: editors write graf and hed for paragraph and headline). Can’t figure out a character’s name? “EvilPoliticianTK.” Need to describe the forest? “He looked out over the SpookyForestDescriptionTK.” Need that perfect emotional-physical beat to break up dialogue? “BeatTK.” Just keep writing. TK a whole chapter if you want. Those blanks are not going to make or break anything big picture. Come back for them once you’ve won a few rounds against the existential terror of “Is this whole book going to work or not?” There’s no sense filling in the details on scenes that you’re going to cut. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hgajetp2wp3af3xxmxnhkbc4)) ---