Hi Janie! Welcome to Book Country. We are very excited to have you here. It's such a big deal that you are already thinking about writing a book.

The community is here for you as you figure out the nuts and bolts of the writing process. I'm happy to help as well. I am hoping to get a better idea of what you mean when you say, "format." Tell me more and I will weigh in, as will other BC members who might have advice to share.

As you begin to imagine your book taking shape, it could be fun to check out some of the landmark titles in your genre. It sounds to me like you are headed in the direction of writing either memoir, which would be the story as it happened to you, or perhaps contemporary YA fiction, which might in your case draw heavily on the autobiographical. It always helps me to read widely in the genre that I am trying to write, just to get a sense of how other authors approached and plotted their material. You can browse landmark memoir titles here and you can browse contemporary YA fiction titles here.

There IS such a thing as YA memoir, though it is not yet a huge literary category. In my previous job, I worked with an awesome writer named Aaron Hartzler who just published a book called RAPTURE PRACTICE. It is the true story of his childhood and teenage years, written for a teen audience. That also might be a good book to check out.

As you learn to navigate the Book Country site in general, I find that these video tutorials are super helpful, too. They explain how to read and review the work of other writers on Book Country, then upload your own work to get feedback from the community.

Let me know what I can do to help, Janie!

Lucy Silag

Book Country Community and Engagement Manager