Fact-Checkers Need Not Apply

These days, it's amazing how many people spread false information and the speed with which it goes around. (Note: These people aren't necessarily liars. According to St. Augustine, to be a liar, one must know something is false yet still speak it as truth. That's what I go with.) False information, astounding lies, and amazing stories too intriguing to be real fly around the internet at the speed of information, and everyone falls for it at some point. Why?

There's just so much temptation to believe that, say, your favorite cookie does, in fact, stop the aging process, because that justifies you scarfing down another sleeve of cookies. It's for your health! However, there's an even greater force at work here, which is our willingness to believe certain people and figures in our life. We have these people around us and we say, "Why would they lie to me?" after they tell you about the anti-aging cookies. We yield something to presumed authority, and it makes the story easier to accept - even after we've packed on an extra forty cookie-pounds worth of anti-aging goodness.

Well, this is where writers get to have fun. When we write a story, we create the ultimate authority - the narrator. The reader steps into a new world and the entire thing is created by the narrator. From the color of the sky to every character's actions, the narrator brings out this information, usually through the main character's perspective, and we build out from there, entirely dependent on the narrator's guidance. However, the writer is the one running the show, so even though the reader is all about this narrator, the writer is the one who knows the truth, and the greatest truth a writer can know is when the narrator is lying. This is the basis of the technique known as, "The Unreliable Narrator."

In my most popular post in the history of this blog, affectionately titled, "Obi-Wan Kenobi - You Suck!" I demonstrated how our beloved character of Obi-Wan set up one of the more famous scenes in sci-fi because he lied to Luke about his father. Now, a writer can do that same thing by telling us a story through one character's perspective, but not revealing (at first) how that character might see things differently than they were. I think of the stories passed down from generations, accumulating that wonderful shine of the golden years that covers up the gritty truths within those stories. (Since I recently had a family reunion, I could tell you things...) But most importantly, the Unreliable Narrator allows us to portray a situation as the character sees it so we understand what drives the character, then gradually reveal the truths, which if done right can show us the deeper layers of that same character - perhaps their inner fear of the things that really happened.

The Unreliable Narrator should not be used as just a clever tool for you as the writer to fool the reader. The reader will believe the narrator until told otherwise, so they are too easy a mark for such a simple trick. Rather, it should be used as a point of revelation - possibly for the narrating character themselves - that they have been resisting larger truths and more fearful circumstances. It should be used as a twist to aid in the character's progress and not a "Gotcha!' moment. As the reader, our response to a good use of the Unreliable Narrator should be, "Wow!" not "Huh?"

After all, Obi-Wan was, in fact, doing what he thought was best for Luke. It just didn't turn out too well.