What is an Unreliable Narrator and How Do You Write One?

It’s comforting to settle into a story where we can trust the narrator to guide us easily and expertly. The narrator is, after all, the audience’s compass through the story, a framing device on which they can rely heavily. However, not all narrators can be trusted with equal measure. The unreliable narrator can lead the audience down the wrong path either on purpose or by virtue of their personality.

But what’s the use of an unreliable narrator in screenwriting? And how do you write one? In this article, we’re going to take a look at what an unreliable narrator looks like in a screenplay and how you can deploy one. Let us be your trusted and reliable narrator for this at least…

What is an Unreliable Narrator?

So, what is an unreliable narrator? It’s as easy as the name suggests – a narrator of the story that isn’t reliable and, therefore, can’t be trusted.

An unreliable narrator is a first-person narrator of a story that can’t be trusted for a complete or truthful account of that story.

They may be unreliable on purpose, telling lies, for example. Or their unreliability may be an unintentional symptom of their character. Moreover, the unreliable narrator may be apparent to the audience from the start or the audience may not notice the narrator is unreliable until the very end.

This often manifests as a plot twist. Here, the credibility of what we have just watched is called into question or completely upended by the sudden realization that all was not as it seemed. The unreliable narrator can come in many forms. But they are always a source of complexity, throwing the audience off and adding layers to the narrative.