Why it's To Kome, and not To Come

A useful tool for writing on Substack

Dear writers of Substack, I just fancied sharing something useful.

Perhaps you’ve already heard of using TK as a placeholder, but perhaps not. In the world of writing and publishing, TK has been a shorthand placeholder since the early 20th century - but in the world of Alison, it’s only existed for about seven years, ever since I discovered it on Tedium.

TK stands for To Kome - which actually means To Come. The reason for TK rather than TC is apparently due to its rarity—almost no words naturally contain TK which makes it ideal as a place holder, it stands out and is easy to identify.

Adding the letters TK reminds the writer/editor to make amendments before publishing. These days, of course, we have Control F - but whether scanning the old fashioned way or with digital assistance, TK catches the eye. And when you use it digitally, it prevents accidental publishing.

It’s dangerously easy to publish a piece online on before it’s finished, but if you’ve inserted a TK, the system will nudge you first —at least on Substack and many other platforms.

So if I’m experiencing a moment of brain fog and I know that line I’m working on is lacking, rather than struggling for long minutes and breaking the flow, I just chuck in a TK and return to it later. And if I do forget to make the improvements/alterations, and try to hit publish, I’m met with this:

And that’s all, really.

Hope this was useful, if you have any useful tools or tips you’d like to share please do - and I really must talk to you about the Substack SEO some time, but that will have to wait.

Wishing you a pleasant Sunday afternoon from the wide brown land.

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