My Fictional Life

How “real” is your life on social media? Do you present a multi-faceted person? Do you show only your good side, or do you let your troubles and your politics hang out all over and stir up controversy?

I’m not sure there’s a right or a wrong here. Each person makes her own decisions as to what to share—and when it’s oversharing. Authors and others with a public persona usually choose to hold back on health or family problems unless they relate to what we write about.

Does it present a false front to squelch the negative talk? Do our followers and friends think our life is perfect simply because we edit what we share publicly?

Several agents have talked about this lately. Wendy Lawton of Books and Such Agency talked about “My Facebook Life.” This prompted her fellow B&S agent Rachelle Gardner to discuss whether we’re overexposing our lives on social media. On Wednesday, Tamela Hancock Murray of the Steve Laube agency added her two cents’ worth in “My Amazing Fake Day.” Try to discern fact from fiction in Tamela’s schedule!

So here’s My Fictional Life. How much do you think is true?

6:30 am: The alarm goes off and I bounce out of bed. Feed the starving cats. Let the dog out.

6:45-8:30: I sit down at my laptop and write. Witty dialogue and tense action scenes pour out of my fingertips. Let the dog in.

8:30-10: Shower, breakfast, devotions, email, and Facebook. Maybe snuggle a kitty or two. (Or, more recently, three. Don’t ask.) Let the dog out.

10-11: Marketing related tasks. Let the dog in.

11-12:30: Let the dog out. Play with 15-month-old granddaughter and serve lunch for her and I. Remove toddler from the pets’ water dish. Put dish on counter. Change toddler.

12:30-3:00 pm: While toddler naps, back to writing, marketing, or online freelance work. Never Facebook. She heads home at 3. Let the dog in.

3-6:30: Outside work (garden/farm), errands in town, hubby time, or online work. Oh, and supper. Let the dog out.

6:30-9:00: Freelance or marketing work. Let the dog in.

9-9:30: Work out. Let the dog out.

9:30-10:30: Let the dog in. Read. Usually a chapter or two from a nonfiction book, then several chapters of fiction.

10:30 pm-6:30 am: Sleep soundly. No waking up from kitties ricocheting off the walls. No staring at the ceiling trying to remember what I forgot to do or stressing about the next day’s list. And definitely no tossing and turning. Ever.

How about you? What does your day look like, real or fictional?