Pep Talk
Pep talks are emails sent out during the month of November to encourage authors to write more and to keep going. They are written by published authors and NaNoWriMo staff. MLs in some regions also send out their own pep talks. Participants in Camp NaNoWriMo and the Young Writers Program also receive pep talks throughout the month, as did Script Frenzy participants during the program's run.
The first known pep talk from a published author was by mystery writer Julie Smith during NaNoWriMo 2002. Chris Baty asked Julie for her thoughts on NaNoWriMo and sent her thoughts to the NaNoWriMo community as part of his weekly pep talk email. NaNoWriMo first solicited pep talks from published authors in 2007, providing participants with eight pep talks from published authors. Since then more published writers have contributed pep talks for NaNoWriMo's events.
Wikiwrimo hosts pep talks here.
Pre-2007 Pep Talks
While all the pep talks since 2007 are available on the NaNoWriMo website, earlier pep talks are not. Here are the pep talks from previous years.
Past Pep Talk Writers
2007
- Julianna Baggott
- Neil Gaiman
- Sue Grafton
- Sara Gruen
- Garth Nix
- Naomi Novik
- Deanna Raybourn
- Tom Robbins
2008
- Piers Anthony
- Kelley Armstrong
- Chris Baty
- Gayle Brandeis
- Meg Cabot
- Janet Fitch
- Brian Jacques
- Katherine Paterson
- Philip Pullman
- Jonathan Stroud
2009
- Lynda Barry
- Chris Baty
- Peter Carey
- Kristin Cashore
- Jasper Fforde
- Maureen Johnson
- Gail Carson Levine
- Robin McKinley
- Tamora Pierce
2010
- Chris Baty
- Aimee Bender
- Holly Black
- Jessica Burkhart
- Dave Eggers
- Nancy Yi Fan
- Lindsey Grant
- John Green
- Mercedes Lackey
- D.J. MacHale
- Megan McCafferty
- Kaleb Nation
- Robyn Schneider
- Sherwood Smith
- Lemony Snicket
2011
- Chris Baty
- Gayle Brandeis
- Chris Cleave
- Ally Condie
- Gayle Forman
- Lindsey Grant
- Rachael Herron
- Varian Johnson
- Jonathan Lethem
- Robert Lipsyte
- Erin Morgenstern
- Audrey Niffenegger
- Christopher Paolini
- Mitali Perkins
- Beth Revis
- Lani Diane Rich
- Caissie St. Onge
- Brandon Sanderson
- Deb Olin Unferth
2012
- Gennifer Albin
- Chris Angotti
- Chris Baty
- Ally Carter
- Julie Cross
- Kate DiCamillo
- Grant Faulkner
- Lindsey Grant
- Tupelo Hassman
- Nick Hornby
- Lois Lowry
- Wendy Mass
- Marissa Meyer
- Walter Dean Myers
- Ransom Riggs
- Karen Russell
- Scott Westerfeld
- John Corey Whaley
- Kevin Wilson
2013
- Bella Andre
- Lev Grossman
- Malinda Lo
- Marie Lu
- Holly McGhee
- James Patterson
- Ralph Peters
- Patrick Rothfuss
- Rainbow Rowell
- Catherynne M. Valente
- Jeff VanderMeer
2014
- Jim Butcher
- Kami Garcia
- Tamora Pierce
- Veronica Roth
- Brandon Sanderson
- Chuck Wendig
2015
- Diana Gabaldon
- Sandy Hall
- Charlaine Harris
- N. K. Jemisin
- Stephanie Perkins
- Gene Luen Yang
2016
- Alexander Chee
- Jenny Han
- Alaya Dawn Johnson
- Daniel José Older
- Maggie Stiefvater
2017
- Roxane Gay
- Dean Koontz
- Julie Murphy
- Grant Faulkner
- Kevin Kwan
2018
- Francesca Lia Block
- Justina Ireland
- Min Jin Lee
- Andy Weir
2019
- Maurene Goo
- Jasmine Guillory
- Anne Lamott
- Erin Morgenstern
- V.E. Schwab
2020
- Elizabeth Acevedo
- Charlie Jane Anders
- Kacen Callender
- Alexis Daria
2021
- Tracy Deonn
- Anna-Marie McLemore
- Michelle Good
- Emily X.R. Pan
- Nic Stone
2022
- Kwame Mbalia
- Sarah Gailey
- Kalynn Bayron
- Matthew Salesses
- Sue Lynn Tan
- Viet Thanh Nguyen
See Also
- NaNo Coach, a published author who encourages Wrimos over Twitter during NaNoWriMo
- Camp Counselor, a published author who offers encouragement through short Camp Care Packages and blog posts
- Tep Palk, the Wrimo-written drunken/overtired version of pep talks