How to Write an Unreliable Narrator Without Lying to Your Reader

Unreliable narrators are fine. Unreliable authors are not.

The unreliable narrator is unaware of truths about the world, and has false beliefs. He cannot relay information he does not know, and he cannot avoid making false statements when he doesn't know they are false. So the story requires this.

But the author writes the words that are the reader's only gateway into the story. If the author deliberately falsifies this information, then the reader is playing a rigged game with no way to know what the real story is, which is very unsatisfying.

So, how can an author remain reliable while writing from the perspective of an unreliable character?

• Know how POV impacts reliability. Generally first person POVs can get away with much more unreliability because readers understand that they are seeing the world through someone's eyes.

• Notify the reader that the narrator is unreliable. You don't have to tell them how, or about what, but a hint or two that comes from the author can serve to notify readers that there are two separate streams of information, and one may have lies in it. (Remember the ice cave scene with the penguin in the beginning of the film "Fight Club"? That shows the viewer something that clearly isn't literally happening, to tell him that not everything on screen is literal.)

• Give characters a good, story-based reason for being unreliable in the way that they are. Instead of just deceiving the reader so a surprise can happen, make sure there's a reason why the character believes falsehoods, sees things that are not there, or tells lies about his past to an audience. Readers don't have to find this out right away, but you must know it.

• Make falsehoods relevant to the story.

• Have other characters react realistically to falsehoods from the character, depending on whether they also believe them or not.

• Have a clear notion of what is fact and what is opinion, and write with this in mind.

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