What the heck is an unreliable narrator?
Shouldn’t, of all people in a story, we be able to trust the person telling the story to us?
Not necessarily.
During the last stream, the viewers voted that we go over “unreliable narrators.”
A lot of writers think that an unreliable narrator is simply a narrator that doesn’t make sense. They can say or do whatever they want, and it’s up to the reader to put it all together.
But that’s not really the case. There are a lot of different unreliable narrators, but I think they can be broken down into four categories:
You can see our full discussion here,
or scroll down for the highlights.
What is an unreliable narrator?
– A narrator who isn’t telling us the entire “truth.”
– The narrator might be hiding something from us, remembering things wrong, has a unique interpretation of events, etc.
Examples
– The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime: Christopher has autism and since the book is in his POV, some events he witnesses are skewed.
– Gone Girl: Nick hides the fact that when his wife Amy’s kidnapping is being investigated, he cheated on her.
– A Clockwork Orange: The main characters commit horrible acts of violence, but describe it in fun ways.
– Rashomon/In a Grove: Four people give different/contradictory accounts of a murder in the woods that they witnessed.
Four reasons to use an unreliable narrator:
– Unique POV: To show a character’s unique and unreliable view of the world, BUT make sure the reader understands why the story is being told by them. (The Curious Incident, The Light of the Fireflies)
– A twist: Withholding info can make for a fun twist, BUT make sure the story still makes sense and the payoff is worth it. (Gone Girl, Fight Club, Girl on the Train)
– Horrible acts: Nobody thinks they’re a bad guy, BUT make sure other characters are reacting appropriately. (A Clockwork Orange, You, Lolita)
– Mystery to the reader: It’s fun to end a story making the reader wonder what was true, BUT make sure the reader will actually get to the end and not be confused. (Rashomon, The Telltale Heart, The Life of Pi)
But BEFORE you use an unreliable narrator…
– Think about all the books you love. The vast majority of them do NOT use an unreliable narrator.
– Simply having an unreliable narrator will not make your story good/interesting, and if it doesn’t work with the story, might make it actively worse. (Like abusing multiple POVs/gray morality)
– REMEMBER! Having an unreliable narrator doesn’t mean your narrator doesn’t have to make sense. If anything, it means they have to make MORE sense than usual not to confuse the reader. (Just like how prologues aren’t info dumps)
We go over each section in a lot more detail in the video, so be sure to check that out!
Chat then voted that we write the beginning to this story using an unreliable narrator: A blind person who witnesses a crime.
Here’s what we came up with:
I heard it before I could see it. Actually, I can’t see at all. But that didn’t make it any less real. A murder was committed in the night.
The screams from patients down the hospital hall awoke me in my bed. The doctors and nurses shuffled and scuffled outside my room, reassuring patients that everything was okay. I didn’t even need to see their faces to know that they were dripping with lies and insincerity, even more than usual when they reassured us “hopeless cases” that they were trying their best to help.
Sometimes, I was glad to be blind.
What makes this narrator unreliable? Well you see, he’s not actually blind.
For our story, the character pretends to be blind in order to sneak into a hospital, murder someone housed there, and then get off Scott-free because no one would assume the blind man did it.
In order to pull that off though, he’d have to convince himself (and the reader!) that he is blind, perhaps dropping a few hints here and there that show what’s really going on, such as the opening sentence that takes on a slightly meaning when you know the truth.
After that, chat voted that we write a story based on this image:
Here’s what we came up with:
It was a collision of celestial events. An eclipse, a sunset, and the passing of a comet, all at the same time. Conspiracy theorists claimed that it was a sign of the end of times, but scientists reassured the public that it was all little more than a coincidence.
Until the vortex appeared.
As soon as all three events crossed the same plane of existence, a massive spatial anomaly erupted in the sky, engulfing everything—light, matter, all traces of civilization, and even time itself—with its dimension-crunching, rotating maw. Within seconds, every element, every planet, every organism that had struggled for millennia to survive and evolve hidden away in their little oasis from the harsh universe, had been obliterated.
After the disaster, god looked down at the blank space where one of his favorite solar systems had once been. He slammed his palm over his face with embarrassment.
“Well,” he sighed to himself, “I guess at least now I know what happens when I fart, burp and sneeze at the same time.”
If you want to join us and help write a story by trolling in chat, or share your own writing for feedback, then we’d love to have you. We stream on Twitch every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday at 6:30pm-10:30pm (U.S. Eastern Standard Time).
And you missed the stream, you can still watch them on the YouTube channel or watch the full stream reruns.
Hope to see you next time, friend!
Scott Wilson is the author of the novel Metl: The ANGEL Weapon,
forthcoming March 2019.
Featured image: Pakutaso (Edited by me)