Newbie - is it possible to turn a personal blog into a novel?

[BodyKeepingScore]

Hi, newbie to this section of MN!

I'm wondering if anyone here has successfully turned a blog into a memoir/book?

I began charting my experience with depression and hospital admission on my blog and since then I've considered writing it in memoir format... but I'm anxious for so many reasons. I'm reasonably confident in my ability to write competently and in a way that's engaging but I keep coming back to "why would anyone want to read about me?"

There's also the practical side... who do I even approach for advice?

Welcome! There are lots of examples of people who have turned personal blogs into memoirs (multiple mommy-bloggers come to mind), so it's definitely possible. It helps if your blog already has a big following, as this gives you a platform which agents and editors will be interested in. Beyond that, I don't think it having started as a blog will make much difference one way or another. You seem to be using 'novel' and 'memoir' interchangeably, though - in reality they're very different things.

It’s been done. Hyperbole and a Half is an example of a blog which was turned into a book (though the book itself is a blog post format that a narrative). It was a very popular blog though, and was hilarious and poignant on the sections on depression. I think a memoir on your experience would be a difficult sell, unless there’s another hook somewhere in your story, or you have a large audience.

If you want to traditionally publish it, then memoirs are usually sold on pitch, rather than submitting a finished manuscript to an agent like a fiction novel would. If you do want to sell to a traditional publisher, I’d put a lot of research into how to craft a great proposal for it.

There are certainly examples - the first one that springs to mind for me is

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Things_My_Girlfriend_and_I_Have_Argued_About#%3A%7E%3Atext%3DThings_My_Girlfriend_and_I_Have_Argued_About_is_a%2Ca_column_in_The_Guardian.?wprov=sfla1

because I was reading the blog long before the book was published.

Like any book, whatever is origins, you ought to search around and read other books in the same "shelf space" to get some insight into what you are competing with and how you might offer something different or better. What have you got to offer a reader, why would they want to read it?

Have you watched ‘I May Destroy You’, @BodyKeepingScore? Written by Michaela Coel.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000jz0n