Our first challenge is the Prompt Exchange! If the process sounds somewhat familiar, don’t fret. We’ll be adding more challenges as the weeks go by.

Here’s how it works:

You sign up. Give us your name, email address, website, Twitter handle (if you have one), and one writing prompt. We then take all participants for the week, mix them up, and randomly match them to each other. So Joe might get Kim’s prompt, but Kim might get Bill’s prompt, and so on.

You will never know who will get your prompt, or what you will have to write about…which is what makes it so exciting!

You’ll receive your prompt on the website and in a personalized email. After you get your writing prompt, you will have until Thursday at midnight (EST) to write a piece, post it on your blog, and tell us about it on Scriptic.org! That’s the easy part.

The rules:

1. You must finish and post your piece by midnight (EST) on Thursday. If you do not submit the URL of your post on time, you will not be featured in the weekly roundup.

(How do you submit your URL? Each week we will post a blog entry containing that week’s prompts. All you have to do is write in the comments section of that blog post and put in the URL of your blog post. Comments will automatically close on Thursday at midnight).

2. You must mention your challenger, your challengee, and Scriptic, with links to all three either at the beginning or end of your piece. When you get your prompt, you will be provided with some handy-dandy HTML code to paste into your post, but it’ll look something like this (everything in all caps should be replaced with real values):

My challenger: (challenger name and website)
My prompt: (prompt text)
I gave a prompt to: (challengee name and website)
The prompt I sent out: (prompt)

If you don’t include the code snippet given to you at the beginning or end of your entry, you will not be featured in the weekly roundup.

3. There is no word limit, but don’t post your novel as an entry. New pieces only. Serial pieces only work for your very own audience–not for people discovering you for the first time. So keep that in mind.

4. Have fun. This is an exercise to get your mind moving in a different direction. Be creative, stretch yourself, and start working!

If you are having a hard time, we are all here to help. Don’t know how to start? Drop a note on our Facebook page or send us a tweet and someone — either one of our editors or maybe a fellow participant — will respond with suggestions. Need feedback? Our editors are always happy to take a look at your piece before it goes live.

Sound interesting? Give it a try and sign up here.

Do you have more questions? Read our FAQ.