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ArjinFerman  Tinfoil Gigachad  21d ago (text post)   410 thread views

Tinker Tuesday for May 26th, 2026

This thread is for anyone working on personal projects to share their progress, and hold themselves somewhat accountable to a group of peers.

Post your project, your progress from last week, and what you hope to accomplish this week.

If you want to be pinged with a reminder asking about your project, let me know, and I'll harass you each week until you cancel the service.

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I promised to get to and finish the big scene by this thread, but I haven't finished it. I'm still in the first... third? of the big scene, 41111 words in total. At least the end is in sight, and I'll be able to switch to editing soon.

This novelette is approaching novel-length.

It is. I think it will be 48k by the time I finish the first draft. Don't know what the final size will be, I guess something around 55k. Some of the earlier scenes could benefit from being less IKEA-like.

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A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


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