True Story
By Shel Silverstein
(from Where the Sidewalk Ends, 1974)
This morning I jumped on my horse and went out for a ride.
Some wild outlaws chased me and they shot me in the side.
So I crawled into a wildcat’s cave to find a place to hide,
But some pirates found me a sleepin’ there and soon they had me tied
‘Til a lady zombie cut me loose and begged to be my bride.
So I said I’d come back Wednesday, but I must admit I lied,
‘Cause I run away into the swamp but I forgot my guide.
And I stepped into some quicksand, and no matter how I tried,
I couldn’t get out ’till I met a crocodile named Clyde
Who took me to some cannibals who planned to have me fried.
They built a fire under me and I swear I almost cried
‘Til an eagle come and swooped me up and through the air we flied,
But he dropped me in a boiling lake a thousand miles wide.
And you know what happened then?
I died.
No this is not a poem Mr. Silverstein published posthumously and as far as I know, he never met with any pirates. Rather this poem is a simple and classic example of an unreliable narrator.
As educated people, we tend to trust those that teach us. Unless you were being snarky, I’m sure most of you didn’t challenge your grade one teacher when she told you 1 + 1 = 2.
This transfers to books as well. When we read a book that explains history or math or science, we read it under the assumption that the person giving over the information (i.e. the author) is trustworthy. We expect the information contained therein to be true. And, for the most part, it is true.
Except when it’s not. Be it fiction or non-fiction, a narrator is not to be trusted carte blanche. (By way of illustration, my computer-geek husband will tell you that 1+1=10… in binary.)
As a mom, I tend to doubt the stories my children tell me until I have verified the other side of the story. I empathize when my daughter tells me, “The teacher embarrassed me in front of the entire school for NO REASON AT ALL!” But I always speak to the teacher before passing judgement. Nine times out of ten, the story is not quite like my child reported and there is wrongdoing (and right doing) on both sides of the fence.
When I’m writing fiction, I always try to keep in mind that unless my narrator is fashioned after G-D (the ultimate in objectivity as He knows the story from all angles and sits outside time), she has a bias. She is telling the story as she sees it. This is not the same as it is.
Now some narrators are more reliable than others. A mentally ill person, like Chief Bromden in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, is very obviously unreliable. But even someone that appears to be reporting the events as they happened, like Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird, is going to have a level of unreliability due to her young age at the time the story takes place.
So, if a story is not believable why do readers read it? Because the characters are lovable. As willing partners in reading, we want to suspend our disbelief and walk into the mind of a writer’s narrator. And there is a lot we can learn about the feelings and actions of others when we understand at least a little bit what others see through their eyes.
Now like all writing, there are rules and guidelines on how to write a lovable unreliable narrator. As we carry our reader through our story’s world, we expect them to enter willingly suspending their disbelief. This is almost like an unwritten contract. The reader agrees to suspend her disbelief so long as the writer stays true to the rules he laid down in the story.
These two crucial rules will get you started on writing unreliable narrators that are satisfying to read and fun to write:
- Narrators don’t lie – The trick to making your reader love your unreliable narrator is to make the narrator innocent in his unreliability. As a reader, I hate when a writer makes me feel stupid. And if a narrator tricks me, he had better be the bad guy that someone else is going to kick to the curb. Your good guy may not be telling the objective truth, but he had better believe his story or the reader will feel betrayed.
- Write with foreshadowing – A successful ‘surprise ending’ must be properly seeded. Take the poem at the top, its very title brings the story into question. Who prefaces a story with a claim that it’s true except for one that is embellishing and/or lying? This means when we hear the narrator “died,” we roll our eyes and laugh along with the writer. If the story had been moving along in a less outlandish way and then the main character died, a reader would be left feeling betrayed by the ending rather than entertained. This need not be obvious, subtle writing is usually the best, but the foreshadowing must be there. When the reader finally questions the narrator’s reliability all the hints given before need to click into place.
The best way to learn to write an unreliable narrator is to read stories with unreliable narrators. One of my favorite unreliable narrators is The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence.
Who was your favorite unreliable narrator? Have you ever written an unreliable narrator?
Let me know in the comments!
