We love unreliable narrators like Tyler Durden from Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club or Amy Dunne from Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, but we rarely talk about how such narrators are written and what makes the characters so memorable. So when I was given an opportunity to speak at the 2022 Craftfest held at ThrillerFest XVII, hosted by the International Thriller Writers in New York City, I decided to tackle the topic to discover: What are the benefits of using an unreliable narrator to tell a story? What is the purpose of unreliable narrators in fiction? And when it’s all said and done, how can writers reveal their unreliable narrator without angering the audience?
But first, what is an unreliable narrator?
An unreliable narrator is someone whose storytelling lacks some level of veracity or credibility and this inaccuracy produces a void between the story’s reality and the narrator’s reality, which the reader must then bridge and eventually fill. In contrast, the reliable narrator—i.e. the type most writers strive to incorporate—uses their personal perspective to tell readers all the information they need to know and does so as accurately as possible. However, the truth is that all first-person narrators are unreliable because they are telling the story based on personal bias and because memory itself is a faulty illusion filtered through past experience and one’s level of vested interest in the story. In other words, your job as a writer is to decide how trustworthy or untrustworthy you plan to make that lead character.
With that in mind, we should note that the degree of unreliability runs on a scale from mild to heavy. This means you can even develop characters that have layers of unreliability (e.g. they’re unreliable only about things related to themselves but honest otherwise) and that a story doesn’t need to tell the whole truth to still be true! Plus, when you use the unreliability technique—especially to its fullest extent—you can reveal that device to readers at various times: immediately (The Perks of Being a Wallflower), gradually (Gone Girl), or late enough to become a major plot twist (The Murder of Roger Ackroyd). But however you choose to go about it, keep in mind that this approach to viewpoint is very powerful since no one has more control over the plot—who, what, where, when, and why—than the narrator. Remember, the narrator controls the pacing, diction, who to root for, how the audience should feel about what happens, and the moral compass for the story as presented to the reader.
In Pícaros, Madmen, Naīfs, and Clowns: The Unreliable First-person Narrator by William Riggan, the approach to unreliable narration is broken down into five types.
- Pícaro – one who exaggerates or misrepresents events for the purpose of bragging
- Madman – one who is dealing with trauma, mental illness, or emotional flaw that makes it difficult for them to interpret events accurately
- Clown – one who doesn’t take things seriously and thereby toys with the common narrative conventions
- Naïf – a naïve or inexperienced narrator who views things from an innocent perspective
- Lair – one who deliberately lies about events or hides important information
Remember, these categories aren’t black and white. As with many things in fiction, shades of gray exist, and you can take advantage of that by using several types to make your characters more complex. For instance, it could be argued that Alex from A Clockwork Orange is both madman and clown. So with today’s heightened use of the technique, you may find yourself mashing up the categories or breaking them into new chunks like the supernatural where the narrator’s unreliability comes from some sense of magic or otherworldliness (think The Sixth Sense) or the outsider, i.e. someone with a skewed view because they’ve been scorned in areas based on race, class, culture, or gender (think Ralph Ellison’s novel The Invisible Man). Or it might help to simply think of unreliable narrators as deliberate (ones who know they’re deceiving and why) versus inadvertent (ones who believe they are telling truth or are doing their best despite shortcomings).
Regardless, the benefits of using the technique properly are multifold since it can pack a powerful emotional punch, teach a lesson, add conflict and characterization, or force the reader to dig deeper into their interpretation of the story as they search for the line between fantasy and reality.
However, the key to creating an effective unreliable narrator is to provide clues throughout to indicate the truth about your narrator or to show (in retrospect!) how and/or why they misrepresented events. This is doubly important when using an inadvertent unreliable narrator who may never have enough information to reveal the misconception on their own. You can do this through the other characters or the environment. Failure to do this will leave the reader feeling cheated upon the reveal. Remember, if a character is unreliable and there isn’t a method for distinguishing the truth, the technique serves no purpose. We want the reader to decipher enough about what was being hidden to gather new meaning from the story. So don’t wait! Plant your clues early as with The Sixth Sense (1999).
Here are some things a writer can do to set up the final reveal of their unreliable narrator, but they can also act as clues to produce foreshadowing. Ultimately, to expose the narrator’s biased view, draw attention to the portion of the narrative deemed most credible either through behavior, environment, or comments from other characters. Here are examples of some techniques you can use:
- Contradicting stories, mistakes, or inconsistencies
- Repetition, exaggerations, or overemphasis
- Symbolic representations and patterns of thought
- Incomplete or missing explanation of events
- Illogical information, time manipulation, or overlapping imagery
- A questioning of the narrator’s health, sanity, or motives
- An authoritative, expert, or trusted character revealing the truth
- Outright omission by narrator on first page (often overlooked by reader)
Make sure to then hint at the cause for their unreliability (alcoholism, trauma, naiveté) and provide access to the truth (even if it is fleeting!) through flashback, diaries, news articles, other POV characters, et cetera. You should also hint at your narrator’s motivations, yet give them conflicting desires. This will keep the audience guessing about their true purpose and make for a compelling read.
Another tip for creating a compelling unreliable narrator is to give your protagonist a sense of innocence (i.e. a logical personal justification) even if they are deliberately deceptive because that will help put the audience on their side. But most importantly, keep it sincere. The key approach to writing unreliable narrators is to write them so they believe the story they are telling. Every good lie is based on a kernel of truth—that’s usually how the narrator reconciles reality with the version of the story they are telling. And if the narrator has no moments of truth or levity, readers will not buy their story. Gain reader trust by starting from a place of perceived genuineness.
In short, tapping into your narrator’s humanity is crucial.
The unreliable narrator is an effective technique mainly because we all have egos that play into our deceptions and we all sometimes wish the truth were different. If the lies and idiosyncrasies you create ring true, the reader will bow to your technique. But remember, the unreliable narrator is more than a literary device, it’s a fully realized portrait of humanity’s flaws.
If you want more information about unreliable narrators, you can order my new book Mastering the Art of Suspense: How to Write Legal Thrillers, Mysteries, and Chilling Crime Fiction, which will have an expanded chapter on the subject going deep on many of the techniques and topics mentioned here. Or you can register for the 30th annual Surrey International Writers’ Conference scheduled October 21-23 where I will once again give my talk on unreliable narrators along with a discussion on creating characters of color.
What techniques have you used to craft an unreliable narrator? Leave a comment!
