As you know, we’re following three writers participating in National Novel Writing Month and asking them to keep us apprised of their progress. Here’s a Week One recap from Brenda Mantz:

During the thirty days of NaNoWriMo I write much differently than I do the rest of the year. This is a time for me play and experiment and explore genres and characters that don’t make it onto my page the other 335 days of the year.

I don’t begin with a plot or an outline – just an idea. The characters do the rest. I’m just along for the ride.  This year’s ride has been a lot more fun because I’ve had company. I get regular ideas and encouragement from new friends in the Twitterverse – particularly @shelfmagazine, @mynameisceline and @ejjames.

This year’s idea was planted during a lunch with an old friend at the Bombay Club. My friend, a fellow writer, was about to leave DC and this would be our last lunch. He posed what I thought was an unusual question: “Have you ever considered writing a REVENGE novel?”  The seed blossomed into this year’s Nano

revenge.docx: A Novel.

Sasha Carpenter’s new laptop has a mind of its own. The stories she finds herself creating on her new HP Mini don’t come from her own mind but from the mind of some other vengeful and malevolent being.  And these stories come true with terrifying results

Read a sample here   http://brendamantz.wordpress.com/ — Brenda Mantz