You Can Trust Me (But Don't!) — The Unreliable Narrator

writing craft

What are unreliable narrators and how do I write them? There are 4 Types of Unreliable Narrators (LIAR):

Lunatic - insane, delusional
Innocent - naive, manipulated, amnesiac
Ape - trickster
Rat - criminal, villain

We will also review 7 Tips and Tricks for Writing the Unreliable Narrator.

This article is SPOILER-FREE, so don’t worry, you can rest assured that we did NOT include examples that would ruin your favorite book or movie by revealing their unreliable narrator. At the end of the article there is a series of links to examples of unreliable narrators where there are spoilers, so beware before you click on any of those links (in the “Resources” section of the article).

Before we start ...
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What are Unreliable Narrators and (Why) Do We Like Them?

An unreliable narrator is one whose telling of the story is not trustworthy, flawed in some fundamental way. Their perspective on the story is not accurate for some reason, as the reader will discover.

As readers we love a good trick, a twist and turn we didn’t see coming, as long as it’s fair. All plot twists are in some sense like magic tricks. The unreliable narrator is one of those tricks that, when well executed, makes for a memorable story.

After we’ve been fooled by the gimmick of the unreliable narrator, we love to go back and look at all the clues. In this way, an unreliable narrator can build in mystery even to a story that fundamentally is not a “mystery” story.

Most often, of course, unreliable narrators are used in stories that include some form of mystery, crime, suspense, a thriller, but they don’t have to be. You can have an unreliable narrator in a science fiction, fantasy, horror, western, romance (especially a romantic suspense story), and there are many examples of unreliable narrators in mainstream and literary fiction.

We like the unreliable narrators because we admire the trick, as long as it is done properly.

Let’s take a look at the four types of unreliable narrators and then the DOs and DON’Ts of writing the unreliable narrator.

4 Types of Unreliable Narrators

There are four types of unreliable narrators. Most of us intuitively think of what I will call the “Rat”, a villain, a criminal, who is covering up their evil ways as the unreliable narrator.

But there are three other types of unreliable narrators. Let's take a look a them.

We’ll use an acronym mnemonic, “LIAR”:

Lunatic
Innocent
Ape
Rat

LUNATIC

Other than the criminal/villain (the "Rat), this may be the unreliable narrator that comes most readily to mind.

This is an insane person, delusional, someone who doesn’t even realize that what they’re saying is not reliable. They’re fooling themselves, as much as the reader.

This is the madman, the unhinged. There’s something about their outlook on the world that isn’t right.

As we write this unreliable narrator, the trick we play on the reader is that the lunacy doesn’t become evident until some later point in the story. If the insanity of the narrator is evident from the start, we don’t have an unreliable narrator, just a “reliably crazy” narrator.

So you want to make sure that the narrator feels, and expresses to the reader, that the world, as they see it, is just as it should be, and they should be so convincing that the reader goes right along with their worldview until it is exposed as being completely delusional.

INNOCENT

As with the “Lunactic”, the “Innocent” is an unreliable narrator who doesn’t realize that they are unreliable. But the “Innocent” is not crazy, just uninformed or misinformed.

That could mean that they are naive person, perhaps a child, or simply not very smart, so that they don’t “get” what is going on. They only understand things through their limited perspective, and this is what they share with the reader.

They could also be a full-grown person of reasonable intelligence, but an outsider in the environment they find themselves in, so they misinterpret what is really going on. As the narrator, they’re reporting to us, and we’re supposed to believe them, but because they themselves don’t understand the “game” that’s being played, they are unreliable and we will only catch on later as other characters or other events of the story inform us.

The narrator could even be deliberately misled and manipulated by some person or persons, so that they are the dupe, the sucker, the babe in the woods, and some other character or group are behind the scenes, pulling unseen strings. This flavor of an unreliable narrator is unreliable in the sense that we as the reader are being misled or manipulated right alongside with them.

Then there’s the amnesiac, a person who has large holes in their memory, perhaps because of a trauma or some disability, a disease or other condition that effect their memory, a major drinking problem, drugs, or any other reason, and they truly don’t remember a past that will only be revealed later to them, and through them to the reader.

Finally, there’s the special case of a “willfully blind” person who is in some form of denial or has a strong biased worldview. It could be that they are in denial about themselves or about some aspect of their past history, because they can’t face the truth. Or it could be that they are so biased to a certain perspective on the world that they can’t (and really won’t) see the truth. In either sense they are an “innocent” because their simplified view of the world is the lens we, as a reader, is seeing the story through.

APE

The “Ape” is a trickster, someone who loves to entertain themselves by spinning tales, a “clown” who enjoys pulling the reader’s nose.

In some cases, the “Ape” is acting this way because they want to paint a better picture of themselves, puff themselves up, and put on airs.

Unlike the “Lunatic” and the “Innocent”, the “Ape” knows full well that they’re unreliable, misleading, lying.

Unlike the “Rat”, the Ape doesn’t have a truly evil intent. Instead it’s a form of innocent mischief, or an aggrandizement. It does mean that the “Ape” has a fundamental contempt for the truth (and for the reader). The way that they approach life is that’s it’s in some existential way a big joke. Truth doesn’t matter. Lies are entertaining. Lies can make the “Ape” look better and can help the “Ape” achieve their clever, sneaky goals.

The “Ape” is constantly trying to pull tricks on the reader. Therefore, to be consistent, and to play fair, there should be some clues that the “Ape” is a trickster, not just towards the reader, but towards other characters in the story.

RAT

Finally we get to the “Rat.”

Yes, this is the pure liar, the manipulator, who knows exactly what they’re doing, and they’re doing it with evil intent.

It can be a criminal who has done something wrong and therefore it’s covering up for their crime. Otherwise they may be a decent person, but they’re a “Rat” in this regard, because they have committed a crime and now they want to get away with it, so they tell lies, omit, misdirect, and play games with the reader, and with other characters they encounter in the story.

The “Rat” could also be a pure villain. This is someone who is morally evil, a manipulator, perhaps a narcissist, a sociopath, a demon, someone who has evil intent, not just because of having committed a specific crime, but due to a core personality trait. However, as with any well-rounded character, the villain has their reasons for acting the way they do, and in their mind they are not acting in a bad or wrong way, or they simply don't care about how their actions affect others.

7 Tips and Tricks for Writing the Unreliable Narrator

As we go through these seven tips and tricks for writing the unreliable narrator, we should be mindful that the different types that we just discussed will have different motivations and there will be nuances on how each of the seven points are used for each type of unreliable narrator.

OMISSION

Omission means that the narrator’s withholding information, whether they know it or not, to keep the reader in the dark.

The “Lunatic” is omitting all the things that doesn’t fit into their deluded worldview.
The “Innocent” is in the dark right along with the reader, so the things that are omitted are those that the narrator doesn’t see or doesn’t understand.
The “Ape” and the “Rat” will deliberately omit aspects of reality and the story so as to fool the reader.

MISDIRECTION

Misdirection is deliberately pointing the reader in the wrong direction.

The “Lunatic” may point the reader in the wrong direction as to their underlying motivations and their desires. They will appear to have motivations that are rational, when in reality they are deviant, deluded, insane. Once the reader understands the narrator’s particular brand of insanity, it becomes evident that the true motivations and desires are dramatically different from what the narrator has portrayed.
The “Innocent” does not deliberately point the reader in the wrong direction, but the narrator may themselves be misled and they pass along the misdirection to the reader.
Misdirection is a key, deliberate tool for the “Ape” and the “Rat”.

LIES

Straight up lies, deliberately told by the narrator, are almost always the domain of the “Ape” and the “Rat”.

The only exception would be a “Lunatic” who somehow feels compelled to tell lies, because of some aspect of their particular brand of lunacy (ex. “the voices in my head told me what to say.”)

The “Innocent” may be lied to, and because they fall for the lies, then pass on those lies to the reader, they lie without intending to.

BELIEVABLE

We want to make sure that the narrator is believable. The reader needs to be able to trust the narrator. It helps if the narrator is likeable or at least sympathetic in some way.

Writing as the “Lunatic” you want to hide their delusions so well from the reader that the insane narrator seems normal, believable.
The “Innocent” is often genuinely likable and the reader may empathize with the narrator, cheering them on, not realizing that they are duped right along with the "Innocent" narrator. If you’re not careful, the “Innocent” narrator may come across as not believable to the reader if their naïveté is too pronounced so that the reader is way ahead of the narrator, frustrated at the narrator not grasping what’s obviously going on.
The “Ape” and “Rat” are skilled manipulators and know how to charm everyone, including the reader. The “Ape” is good at spinning tales, but may have a tendency to exaggerate so much that other characters (and the readers) stop believing in them. The “Rat” who is an “amateur criminal” may slip up because they are not used to lying. The pure evil villain is likely so practiced and clever at their misdirections, omissions, and lies that it is hard for any of the characters or the reader to catch them in the act.

CONSISTENT

Let your narrator be unreliable from the start and stay consistent with their story all the way until “The Turn” (see below).

The “Lunatic” is consistently delusional and their unhinged worldview stays consistent. Be careful of a “Lunatic” narrator whose delusions are wild and changing. That will make it too easy to spot that you can’t trust the narration.
The “Innocent” should be misinformed and misdirected from the start and stays that way until “The Turn”.
The “Ape” and “Rat” are going into the narration with the intent of fooling the reader, so they should stay consistent with that plan from the beginning and through the whole story until they are found out or decide to pull off the mask and reveal themselves.

SEEDS

You want to plant seeds of doubt early, but subtly. You want the reader to be able to go back, practically to page one, and spot how the trick was played on them, in retrospect.

When you plant the seeds, you should misdirect, just like a good magician does. Here are few examples of seeds and how they go hand in hand with misdirection:

Other characters are onto the narrator and that comes out in what they say or how they act towards the narrator. You can misdirect by having the narrator turn the tables and tell the reader how these other characters are crazy, naive, or liars.
Show vs tell - the narrator thinks or says something (“tell”) that is contradicted by what actually happens ("show"). You can misdirect by having the narrator invent a natural explanation for this contradiction. Or you can hide the contradiction next to some “shiny object” that draws the reader’s attention: a “stalking horse” that appears to be the important aspect of the scene when the clue to the unreliable narrator is in plain sight.
Slip-ups - the narrator inadvertently says or does something that is inconsistent with the false narrative. You can misdirect by having the character catch themselves and offer a believable explanation. Or you can introduce some distraction (that “stalking horse” again) that takes the reader’s mind off the slip-up.

THE TURN

The “Turn” is where the narrator is found out or reveals their own secret either inadvertently or on purpose. This can happen in a confrontation with another character, or by the narrator suddenly “ripping off the mask” and revealing themselves, or the narrator could begin to act in erratic, unpredictable or questionable ways, showing themselves as being unreliable.

“The Turn” can be towards the end, at the “climax” (in Act III of the FictionMAP narrative structure), with the clues to the false narrative pointed out to the reader in the “closure” beat of the story.

It can also be at a key point earlier in the story, such as at the midpoint, the “crisis” beat of the story.

Or it can be as we turn from Act II to Act III, so that “The Turn” represents the “change” beat which propels us into the Act III Conclusion of the story.

Very rarely would you have “The Turn” earlier. For example, if the false narrative is revealed upfront as the “catalyst”, then this is really not an unreliable narrator story, but instead a story about the known “Lunatic”, “Innocent”, “Ape”, or “Rat” where the reader is in on it, in the same way that the viewer is in on the attempts of the criminal to fool Columbo in the “inverted detective story” format.

If “The Turn” happens anywhere before the “climax”, there should be a sharp shift in the tone of the story, perhaps even a shift in the narrator (ex. in a mystery, we may shift to a third person narrative from the detective’s perspective.) If you stay with the narrator, they may gloat and show off about their ability to fool the other characters (and the reader) and then we move into a cat-and-mouse game where the reader knows the truth and the focus is on whether (or how) the narrator will get away with it.

Regardless of where “The Turn” happens, it should include some form of pointing out the clues (the “seeds”) and letting the reader in on the trick and how it was worked on them.

Resources

Here are some resources that will help you write your unreliable narrator.

MY FAVORITE ALL-PURPOSE RESOURCE

The Writer's Treasure Chest - everything in one place, curated, organized, this is a great reference for all things writing craft, with tons of prompts, plot/character generators and other tools to inspire you to write a great story featuring an unreliable narrator.

EXAMPLES OF UNRELIABLE NARRATORS

This article was spoiler-free, so as not to ruin your favorite book or movie by revealing their unreliable narrator.

HOWEVER, the articles listed below do include MAJOR SPOILERS, so click at your own risk.

Your unreliable narrator is (unreliably) telling your story, here are some articles that will be helpful as you write that story:

FREE COURSE, GUIDE AND WORKBOOK

Do you want to write fiction faster, while practicing your craft and your writing process to consistently get better? Check out this link to the "Write Fiction Faster ... and better" guide and workbook, which comes with a companion course with 23 bite-sized video lessons and 4 worksheets.

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