Fake It ‘Til You Make It – Portia MacIntosh

In my latest novel, Faking It, Ella is a character who doesn’t have her life together at all. She’s in her early 30s, she doesn’t like where she lives, she hates her job, she doesn’t have a boyfriend and her friends have all grown up and moved on with their lives.

Her twin sister Emma, on the other hand, has a seemingly perfect life. She’s married, lives in a big house, has two beautiful children – it really seems like things couldn’t go better for her, which is why Ella is so surprised to hear that Emma is in a jam and she needs her help.

To Emma appearances are everything, so rather than look bad in front of the people in her village, she enlists Ella to stand in for her, to pretend to be her, which should be easy given that no one in Emma’s new fancy life even knows that Ella exists.

It should be easy, but it isn’t, because it turns out that being the amazing Emma is actually quite hard, and while her life might not be as perfect as it seems from the outside, Ella still has a lot to learn.

If Faking It reminds us of anything it’s that ‘faking it’ can actually be quite a positive thing. You’ve heard the phrase ‘fake it ‘til you make it’? Well, it’s only when Ella tries that approach that she feels like she’s getting somewhere with her double life.

So, obviously we’re not all stepping in for our twin sisters, but there are plenty of times when we put on a brave face, or we have to stand up and talk in a meeting and we are petrified on the inside but try to pretend we’re still cool on the outside. Sometimes all it takes it a little make believe. Pretend you’re confident and wait for the real deal to kick in. Try to find something to smile about when you’re feeling low. The idea is that hopefully, while you’re pretending, everything just clicks into place.

So, when faced with a problem, if you can, just fake it ‘til you make it and hope for the best, because even if you don’t succeed at least it will look like you did.

Faking It is out now in ebook, audiobook and paperback! See more of Portia’s books by clicking on the banner below…