Supposedly, Augustus bragged that he had found Rome a city of brick, and left it a city of marble. And that’s more or less where Zen is heading with regards to the Department of Writing. That department was in rough shape when he took it over. Most courses dated back years, over a decade in at least a few cases, and they had received minimal updates. Ciara and Erinyes had big plans for the department but real life removed them from the SA before they get could get very far along. Zen took on responsibility for the project, developed his own take on that plan, revised it again for the new HM, and has kept pace with my evolving megalomania vision for the SA.

In addition to the two courses recognized by his last Sapphire Blade, Zen was the sole author on Character Development. He developed an outline and wrote the 2041-word course notes and the exam with minimal assistance from me. On the contrary, Zen had to navigate our differing ideas and expectations for a Character Development course and revise his initial draft accordingly. The resulting course provides general principles and actionable advice that apply to almost every solo fiction, co-op fiction, run-on, or ACC match that a member would want to write. The quality of the course notes and the exercise-drive exam both reflect Zen’s professional experience as an educator and his personal experience with the subject matter and his extensive research through books, articles, and videos written by professional authors and screenwriters.

I like to think that every course we release is polished and professional, but sometimes it takes a while to get there from the first draft. Zen’s drafts, however, are always within a few Markdown tags of publishable, significantly reducing my workload as HM and allowing me to focus my energy on SA-level innovations. A mixed blessing, perhaps, as he would be getting an award for two new courses if not for one of Arch’s bright ideas bogging down the process. I suppose I’ll have to save that for my fourth SB rec for him.

Alethia Archenksova
Headmistress

Moff Alethia Archenksova, 2023-10-20 13:46:34 UTC

4000 words of fiction (Fiction Activities #10546, #10638, and #10680)

Lord Idris Adenn, 2023-10-18 23:30:15 UTC

For achieving 5th place in the [GJW XVI Phase II] Gaming - Squadrons competition.

Councillor Turel Sorenn, 2023-10-17 17:42:30 UTC

For achieving 8th place in the [GJW XVI Phase II] Gaming - Web Game competition.

Councillor Turel Sorenn, 2023-10-17 17:41:49 UTC

For achieving 5th place in the [GJW XVI Phase II] Fiction - Letters From The Front competition.

Darth Renatus, 2023-10-17 17:37:58 UTC

For achieving 7th place in the [GJW XVI Event Long] Fiction - Small Team Run On: Unchained competition.

Lord Dacien Victae, 2023-10-17 17:36:55 UTC

Bonus Clusters for the '[GJW XVI Event Long] Fiction - Small Team Run On: Unchained' competition (532 words)

Lord Dacien Victae, 2023-10-17 17:36:41 UTC

For achieving 2nd place in the [GJW XVI Phase I] Fiction - Strange New Worlds competition.

Lord Dacien Victae, 2023-10-17 17:36:15 UTC

Bonus Clusters for the '[GJW XVI Phase I] Fiction - Strange New Worlds' competition (3939 words)

Lord Dacien Victae, 2023-10-17 17:36:07 UTC

For achieving 9th place in the [GJW XVI Phase I] Graphics and Miscellaneous - Through the Looking Glass competition.

Rian Taldrya, 2023-10-17 17:28:44 UTC

Participation in the [GJW XVI Phase I] Graphics and Miscellaneous - Through the Looking Glass competition.

Rian Taldrya, 2023-10-17 17:28:32 UTC

500 words of fiction (Fiction Activities #10200 and #10546)

Lord Idris Adenn, 2023-10-04 23:30:17 UTC

Casual Gaming Queue Casual Gamings (Pokemon Showdown) on or before 2023-09-30

(Converted from Cluster of Earth)

Councillor Turel Sorenn, 2023-09-30 23:30:57 UTC

Casual Gaming Queue Casual Gamings on or before 2023-09-30

(Converted from Cluster of Earth)

Councillor Turel Sorenn, 2023-09-30 23:30:28 UTC

Casual Gaming Queue Casual Gamings (Checkers) on or before 2023-09-23

(Converted from Cluster of Earth)

Councillor Turel Sorenn, 2023-09-23 23:30:41 UTC

Casual Gaming Queue Casual Gamings (Pokemon Showdown) on or before 2023-09-03

(Converted from Cluster of Earth)

Councillor Turel Sorenn, 2023-09-03 23:30:16 UTC

Casual Gaming Queue Casual Gamings on or before 2023-09-03

(Converted from Cluster of Earth)

Councillor Turel Sorenn, 2023-09-03 23:30:11 UTC

For achieving 3rd place in the Dark PolyHood Time Trials competition.

The awards for this competition were upgraded due to high participation.

Nobilus, 2023-08-26 02:08:09 UTC

For achieving 2nd place in the DPTT: Track 7 competition.

Nobilus, 2023-08-26 02:07:58 UTC

For achieving 2nd place in the DPTT: Track 6 competition.

Nobilus, 2023-08-26 02:07:50 UTC