I’ve loved to write since I was little.

I remember staying up late, dreaming up story ideas, intricate plots, and compelling characters. I have dozens of little books I made with the odd bit of paper I could scrounge up and a couple of staples. As I grew from a young child into a teenager, I still wrote hundreds of words, but I kept them hidden. Bullying will do that. Make you hide things you’re passionate about.

Do you have something you love, but hide from others?

I wasn’t completely alone, though. Writing is fun, but it’s much more fun when you write with someone. That’s when I found my friend, C. K. Slorra, on a little site called Figment. As a teenager, I was desperate for that online Christian community to write with. Unfortunately for me, Figment was not a Christian site. My friend, C. K., was the only believer on that site.

And let me tell you, we had a blast together.

Once we found each other, we wrote countless stories with one another. But it wasn’t without it’s faults. For every story we made with themes of faith, we had people join our stories and try to add filth to them. C. K. was quick to kick them from our group chats, but damage was done. We were exposed to lots of different ideas about the world.

It was fun, but it wasn’t safe.

Flashforward ten years, and now we’re both published authors (check out her awesome book here!), and Figment as a site is but a figment of our imagination now. (They shut down the website ages ago.)

But that experience left me with a question…where can we have a place where young authors can write together in a safer environment than what I had?

Allow me to introduce to you…

The Spring Writing Challenge!

Starting April 21, The Company is going to send you a weekly writing prompt each week for six weeks. Maybe you’ll have to write a short story that takes place in space—or write about a character that only has a week to live! Whatever the prompt, you’ll have one week to write a 1,000-word short story.

If you win the challenge and write all six stories, they’re going to mail you a free laptop sticker to celebrate! It’s all completely free.

But the best part about this is the team portion of the challenge. When you join, you’ll be added to a team. That team will meet weekly over Zoom to discuss writing and encourage each other. Better yet, you’ll be able to read your friend’s interpretation of the prompts and they’ll get to read yours! It’s a win-win situation.

I get to run the challenge this year. So don’t wait! Stop hiding what you’re passionate about, get out there, and write some prompts!

Go check out the details for the challenge and make those writing friends or better yet, send this blog to a friend of yours and compete in the challenge together!

Join the challenge!

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