What makes a narrator unreliable in your storytelling?
The narrator of your story is the audience’s window into the world. If they’re an unreliable narrator, that window can be a little hazy. When you’re watching a film or TV show, you should always question the narrator’s reliability. See, when people set off to write a screenplay, they sometimes choose to have an untrustworthy narrator at the helm. That kind of person offers new ways in and out of the story.
Today, we’re going to diagram unreliable narrators. We’ll learn about why writers tackle them and look at some definitions and examples of unreliable narrators in literature, film, and television. You’ll learn how to write an unreliable narrator as well, so you can test them out in your own projects. We’ll cover point of view and go through reliability in storytelling.
Due to many of these characters being used for plot twists, some spoilers for major movies to follow.
Sound good? Let’s get started.
Author: Jason Hellerman
This article comes from No Film School and can be read on the original site.
