How do you create suspense with an unreliable narrator in your story?

1 Choose your type

Different types of unreliable narrators each have their own advantages and challenges. For instance, a liar can be used to manipulate a situation in a thriller, a delusional narrator in a horror story, and a naive one in a comedy. Liars deliberately deceive the reader or other characters for their own benefit. Delusional narrators suffer from mental illness, trauma, or distorted perception of reality. Naive narrators lack the knowledge, experience, or maturity to understand the complexity or gravity of the situation. Selecting the right narrator for your genre, theme, and plot is essential.

2 Establish the voice

The voice of your unreliable narrator is crucial to convey their personality, attitude, and credibility. You should use elements such as tone, style, vocabulary, and syntax to create a distinctive and consistent voice that reflects your narrator's traits and goals. For example, a liar may use persuasive, flattering, or sarcastic language, a delusional may use erratic, confusing, or poetic language, and a naive may use simple, innocent, or humorous language.

You should also decide how much your narrator reveals or conceals their unreliability. You can make it obvious, subtle, or gradual, depending on how you want to affect the reader's expectations, emotions, and curiosity.

3 Create contrast

Creating suspense with an unreliable narrator can be done by creating contrast between what they say and what the reader or other characters see. This can cause doubt, confusion, surprise, or shock in the reader as they try to understand the truth. To achieve this effect, you can show the narrator's actions or reactions that contradict their words or thoughts, introduce other sources of information that challenge or expose the narrator's version of events, and have other characters question, confront, or contradict the narrator's claims or motives. When doing so, it is important to balance the amount and timing of contrast you create, so that you don't lose the reader's interest or trust but also don't reveal too much too soon.

4 Play with expectations

Creating suspense with an unreliable narrator is possible by using techniques such as foreshadowing, hints, twists, and red herrings. These can help you to build anticipation, curiosity, and tension in the reader as they attempt to predict what will happen next or what the narrator's true intentions are. For instance, you can foreshadow or hint at something that will occur later in the story without making it clear if the narrator is reliable or not. You can also introduce a twist or a revelation that changes the reader's understanding of the narrator or the story; however, it should be plausible and logical. Additionally, a red herring or false clue can be used to mislead the reader or other characters; yet, it should be believable and relevant. Be wary of overusing these techniques as they can have an adverse effect and leave readers feeling frustrated if they are too obvious, too frequent, or illogical.

5 Engage the reader

The ultimate goal of creating suspense with an unreliable narrator is to engage the reader in your story, by making them feel involved, invested, and challenged. To make a connection between the reader and the narrator, you can make them empathize, sympathize, or dislike them, depending on your purpose. Additionally, you should make the reader question their own assumptions, biases, and judgments by making them doubt, wonder, or reconsider what they know or believe. Moreover, you should ensure that the reader enjoys the process of discovering the truth by making it rewarding, satisfying, or surprising. To do this, you can provide the narrator with a compelling reason or motivation for being unreliable (e.g., a trauma, secret or goal). You can also give them a distinctive or relatable voice that appeals to the reader's emotions, senses, or humor. Finally, give the reader clues and questions that invite them to participate in the story by solving puzzles and finding patterns.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?