The Unreliable Witness is a staple in my work. Basically, an “unreliable witness” is someone who believes they’re telling the truth but the reader knows isn’t. The unreliable witness isn’t being deceitful, they’re being honest. They may not know what they’re talking about, and that’s irrelevant…
…so long as the reader knows the character doesn’t know what they’re talking about. This creates tension in the reader; Will some worthy character blindly accept what the unreliable witness is saying and walk into a trap? Get hurt? Be eaten by the monster?
Unreliable witnesses can be completely sympathetic characters, and are often completely reliable in a given field but are completely worthless outside of it. The master sleuth who knows nothing about the opposite sex is an example. They’re a walking crime lab but sit them next to a flirt and they have no idea what’s going on. Or the brilliant professor who can’t dress themselves. These are interesting character traits, yes, and they also point to some unreliable aspect in their behavior.
The professor, for example, may remember putting something in their pocket and fail to realize it’s in another coat. When other characters call upon the professor to produce, he can’t, but swears he put it in their pocket.
The reader knows the professor changed coats, the characters don’t, and dramatic tension ensues when the pocketed item is crucial to events in the story.
Or something like that.
(see how I’m being unreliable there?)
Think I’m onto something? Take a class with me, schedule a critique of your work, or buy me a coffee.
Think I’m an idiot? Let me know in a comment.
Either way, we’ll both learn something.
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