自编自导;自我造势someone's way of behaving that is an exaggeration (= a bigger, better, or worse version) of what they are really like
Eventually his alienation became an act, a tiresome self-caricature. 最终，他的疏远变成了一种行为，一种令人厌烦的自我表演。
The poet was not in fact the dry old stick of his self-caricature.