When you make crosswords, there are certain rules you follow. (Not all of the time! But most of the time.)

These are the rules:

• The grid must be square (broken here)
• There cannot be one- or two-letter words (broken here)
• The grid must have rotational symmetry (broken here)
• There cannot be a full row or column of black squares (broken here)
• The white areas must all connect (broken here)

BUT! Let's say we do follow all these rules. Then there are exactly 312 possible 7x7 puzzle grids you can form.

312 is a cool number because it's 6 x 52. In other words, if you published six puzzles a week, it would take exactly a year to try every possible 7x7 grid. So, here we are!

There's a good write-up of the crossword puzzle problem here, and a description of how to solve it for 15x grids here.

If you want to contribute a 7x7, that would be great! Please fill out this form to indicate your interest. Once you have recieved confirmation from me that you successfully claimed the date, you can go ahead and begin constructing. The publishing timeline is available here, to help you pick the best date for you.

(The form asks questions about your experience level with constructing. This is not meant to be intimidating, it is just to help with scheduling. Someone with five years of experience might require no revisions, while a first-time constructor might need to work through several drafts, so this information will help me keep the workload balanced.)

If you have additional questions about the project, you can contact me at sevenxwordsproject at gmail dot com. Please allow five business days for me to respond. (If there is a coup going on, maybe even longer than that.) At that point, if you haven't heard back, definitely follow up.

Lastly, I am excited about getting new constructors on this site! 7x7 is such a friendly size, so it's great for getting started. Here are some tips for putting together a great puzzle:

• Start with the longest words in the grid, and make sure these are lively and fun. Imagine you are solving the puzzle-- would seeing that word make you smile?
• If your crossword software suggests a word, name, or abbreviation that you need to look up, be wary of using it. Teaching solvers something new can be fun, but forcing them to recall archaic acronyms is not.
• Avoid having two proper names or abbreviations crossing