The term unreliable narrator is a misnomer. Everybody is unreliable because they see the world through their own eyes. A writer thinks they must make the unreliability obvious, so that the reader will know the truth. Don’t go there. Trust your reader. Besides, the truth is what the character thinks it is. If they don’t get it, it’s because they’re unreliable, LOL. There’s a circular argument here, somewhere.
Readers want
flawed characters and that includes how the character sees the world.
Here’s an
example. Set up, a man is dying and on the ground:
...As his vision turned
to hallucination. He heard a rifle shot echo through the park. An ambulance wailed.
He was on his Harley, Alice holding him tight again. He smiled.
...As his vision turned
to hallucination. He heard a rifle shot echo through the park. An ambulance wailed.
He swore he was on his Harley, Alice holding him tight again. He smiled.
Which is better?
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