PLAN K - of The Writer's Alphabet

What’s within your ken?

To be within your “ken” means within your range of knowledge or sight.

Bearing that in mind, Plan K is to write about what is within your direct knowledge or sight.

Following Plan K is to describe what is right in front of your nose.

What do you see?

What does it mean?

What significance does it have in your life?

And for you non-writers but doers, it means getting your hands on what is within your ken and doing what you can do with it. Or what you can make.

As with most letters in the Writer’s Alphabet, Plan K has another interpretation based on the famous toy figures Barbie and Ken.

This Plan K asks you, the writer, to write as if you are in fact, that famous Ken.

Write as if you know who Ken voted for in the Presidential election. (Barbie, of course, may have canceled out his vote by voting for the opposite candidate.)

But, no matter, you as Ken are free to write about the trials and tribulations of being a famous toy, but always being secondary to your more famous toy partner, Barbie.

You might even consider writing a sequel and screenplay to the Barbie movie, titled “Ken.”

Consider the type of visuals, scenes, and even scandals you could create.

However, you should be careful to find out the copyright and trademark restrictions on using this famous toy couple.

(You probably should stick to Plan K’s first interpretation. But that’s up to you.)

So far, we haven’t mentioned something else in the Writer’s Alphabet series: These plans can be combined to form hybrids—a new plan combo.

But for now, let’s stick to individual plans.

Coming up next time is Plan L, which is for mature audiences only.

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Ken West is the author of seven books to help you see beyond your ken.