How to be a reliable narrator (of your writing life)

An unreliable narrator is someone whose credibility is compromised and therefore what she, he or they say must be taken with a grain of salt. Sometimes it's obvious right away that a narrator is unreliable, however there are many cases where the character has won our trust only to deceive us at the story's end. There are many types of unreliable narrators such as ones who brag, one's who are crazy (e.g., American Psycho), the clown (e.g., Tristram Shandy), and the liar.

Yet what about unreliable narrators in your own life? Are there voices you hear when you sit down to write that question why you're writing or tell you your writing is awful? Have you ever considered that you may be an unreliable narrator of your writing life?

“I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It's awful. If I'm on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I'm going, I'm liable to say I'm going to the opera. It's terrible,” says 16-year-old Holden Caufield in The Catcher in the Rye.

J.D. Salinger's protagonist accuses others of phoniness yet doesn't look at his own phoniness, and as this quote shows, he's also a big liar. Narrators that lack objectivity are called unreliable, hence the term unreliable narrator.

The voices in our heads

If you hear voices when you sit down to write saying stuff like, You can't do this? You've no time? Who will want to read this? Has it ever occurred to you that this unreliable narrator may not be telling the truth about you, and that it doesn't have your best interests at heart?

Sometimes the unreliable narrator of your writing life doesn't appear right away. Though as we delve deeper into our creative work, the voice or voices often grow in strength. Yet rather than tell the unreliable narrator to take a hike, perhaps we can learn something from this "person."

Learning in the shadows

In The Catcher and the Rye, though highly unreliable, the protagonist teaches us that we're human. At some point in our lives, we've all doubted--all of us have been frustrated or afraid. Even Holden Caufield can admit that.

Among other things, you’ll find that you’re not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You’re by no means alone on that score, you’ll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles.

Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist, claimed that our shadow selves, the ones that can sabotage us and keep us small, hold the key to our creativity: “In spite of its function as a reservoir for human darkness—or perhaps because of this—the shadow is the seat of creativity.” Jung believed that to really know who we are we need to delve into the darkness of our own psyches. The worst thing we can do is to pretend our unreliable narrators don’t exist, as they'll only revisit us later with more potency.

Recognizing the unreliable narrator when she appears, learning from her, and letting her know that you're going to continue writing and doing your thing no matter what, will eventually take away her power to harm you.

Ways to disarm the unreliable narrator

Here are some ways to identify and eventually take away the power of your unreliable narrator to harm you and sabotage your writing process. The last two will help you to gradually become a reliable narrator of your life.

1. Ask yourself why you went to such lengths to carve out an hour to write and then spent all the time on Facebook. Did your unreliable narrator whisper in your ear that what you're doing doesn't matter? Did he tempt you by telling you that doing something else would be more fun?

2. When you feel yourself second-guessing your writing and feeling out-of-flow, poke around your head and see if your unreliable narrator is lurking somewhere in a dark corner.

3. Ask her, him or they to come into the light and tell you what's the matter. What's the unreliable narrator afraid of? Letting the voice have their say in the form of a discussion will take away their power over you.

4. Write down some characteristics of your unreliable narrator such as her personality, tone of her voice, hair colour, what she wears, hobbies (besides tormenting you!). All of these descriptions will give you clues about who she is, how she got and maintains power over you. It may seem strange to describe her so clearly, but this may help you to disarm her.

5. Who would you be if you only listened to your reliable narrator--you know, the one aligned to your wish to write and complete your book project? The one who says, you're doing the best you can...Good for you for showing up today! Look at you; you took some time today to write! You wrote a couple pages--Wow!

6. Write down some messages your reliable narrator says. Post them on your bulletin board. Sing them; shout them out!

7. Each day, pledge to make more space for your reliable narrator. Give them room to breathe, to play, create.

Writing prompts are great for developing a writing habit and for tapping into your writer's voice. Take 10 minutes to free write. If your unreliable narrator shows up, just say hello I see you--or whatever feels right to you--and keep writing. The more you show up for yourself to write, the less power your unreliable narrator will have and the more power your reliable narrator will gain. It takes time to give this narrator space, but I'm convinced you can do it. No, go and write!

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