unreliable first person narrator definition

He is taking several drugs-one called Happy and one called Sad. I do give you some back story, but not in the beginning. So it’s hard to understand who exactly he is, where he comes from, and what he is all about. In my novel Disintegration, there are a few ways that my unreliable narrator adds to the experience. So, how can an unreliable narrator make your writing more suspenseful and intense? Here are some ideas. How They Can Make Your Work Suspenseful and Intense And then we have the supernatural-are they possessed by a demon, controlled by a witch, is there a spell, or some cosmic being pulling the strings? All of this can cause a narrator to be unreliable. There are other mental issues that can lead to an unreliable narration-memory problems, hallucinations, detachment, fugue states, manic states, you name it. The third most common element IMO is mental health-is there a mental problem with the protagonist that causes them to either not be fully present, or to not even realize that there is something going on? We see that a lot in split personalities, or multiple personalities. This can be told early on or later in the story. They are a criminal, a thief, a killer, whatever, and they lie for a living. They tell us upfront they lie, and that they shouldn’t be trusted. Another common way of showing an unreliable narrator is by them being a liar. The harder the drugs, the more they hallucinate, for example, the more obvious it can be that they are not getting the story right, and may (or may not) be aware of how unreliable they are. They tell us stories that seem to be grounded in reality, for the most part, but as it turns out they are not seeing or remembering everything correctly. The easiest, and most common, unreliable narrator IMO is somebody who is affected by drugs or alcohol. But the core of their essence is that we, the readership, have to take everything they say, do, feel, and show with a grain of salt. They can be aware of their unreliable story or they can be unaware, both can work. What’s consistent about using an unreliable narrator, whether you reveal that right from the start (“I’ve always been a liar…”) or reveal it the deeper we get into the story (“Everything I’ve told you so far is a lie…”) is that they don’t tell the truth.

The unreliable narrator can’t be trusted, they are sometimes delusional, sometimes affected by outside sources, and other times by their use of drugs or alcohol. Usually, it’s in first person, though not always. Why? What is the appeal? How can that make your stories more effective, more intense, more interesting? Let’s talk about it.Įssentially, an unreliable narrator is a protagonist whose credibility has been compromised.

When I think about my body of work as an author, starting out writing thrillers and neo-noir, and then shifting over into the new-weird and horror, the unreliable narrator is a protagonist, and technique, that I’ve used quite often.

Unreliable first person narrator definition