Thread: Unreliable Narrators.

I have been musing on why I seem to have no control over how my narrator 'speaks'.
He (or she), can be positively unruly, overly verbose, sarcastic and occasionally wanders off topic.

Even in the edit stage they can play up, and I have sometimes missed their mischief.

I have even had a narrator interrupted by another narrator, and they have had an argument.

Is it possible that writers have a touch of multiple personality disorder?

Do you find yourself talking to flowers?

When you were a child did you have a friend called Nigel who nobody else could see?

Qwertyman, you almost made me leave a puddle in my chair! Bazz cargo: Could you be a little more specific? Are we talking about first person narration? Why is there more than one narrator?

I fail to see a connection between an unreliable narrator and multiple personality disorder.

It sounds like you do have a mpd going on there, but then we all have it to some degree. Best to let your narrators do the talking.

Could you be a little more specific?

I am working on a sequel to garden wars, in which the narrator is writing to a gardening magazine and his wife is looking over his shoulder and interjecting. Somehow it has become a bickering match. This is an extreme case.

Occasionally I have had a narrator digress from a story to make a personal point, or to comment on the character of a character. Sometimes it is funny or enlightening and I leave it in, this is still a narrator being unreliable and I worry about my sanity.

I tend to let my characters (in your case it seems your narrators are characters, right?) talk/ramble/carry on and then just cut out the bits that are relevant to plot/continuity. If you get really attached to the bickering match save it, but move it to another document until you can find the perfect place to reintegrate it- if all else fails make it a sort of gag epilogue or something.

You're hardly the first author to worry about your sanity, but I don't think it's anything worth seeing a doctor over. When you write in first person, or second person (I'm not sure what this counts as) you are speaking for your characters, readers will notice if they are just you re-named a few times as different costumes.

Gardening isn't really my scene but I find myself really interested in this book... Is the first one available to buy somewhere? I've been woefully out of the loop lately- My old laptop pretty much decided it wasn't going to...anything... anymore about two months ago.

Pfft. Sanity. Never been there, and from what people say it sounds like a boring place to spend time.

I have to say I came into this thread because I thought the term 'unreliable narrator' referred to a narrator who you thought was one thing all the way through but turns out to be lying at the end. I'd cite an example, but that might be spoilers for someone. Perhaps I've got the term wrong.

Hi Adeline, unfortunately it is not a book, just a short I posted here:

http://www.writingforums.com/writers...rden-wars.html

It is nice to see you round. Better luck with the technology.

Atys, I am sorry to lead you here by mistake, but I cannot make him behave, if it were a twist or some thing I would call that sly. As for my sanity, I am nowhere near being Napoleon, but I like the theory that madness and genius are close.

Originally Posted by bazz cargo

Atys, I am sorry to lead you here by mistake, but I cannot make him behave, if it were a twist or some thing I would call that sly. As for my sanity, I am nowhere near being Napoleon, but I like the theory that madness and genius are close.

No apology is needed; I'll be interested to see your work myself ^^ Take care!

If your work/novel isn't a serious one, then I see no problem having a comic-relief narrator. Isn't that right, Aaron?
Well yeah, but if he get's too into it, and forgets to carry on with the plot, instead favoring meaningless dialogue, it might get kinda weird. Y'know?
Touche, my fine feathered friend, touche...

Ah Aaron, is it possible I am not the only one who suffers with multiple narrator syndrome?
The mighty xO cannot see how I suffer, if there is a plethora of us, maybe I can get a new disorder named after me

Originally Posted by Atys

Pfft. Sanity. Never been there, and from what people say it sounds like a boring place to spend time.

I have to say I came into this thread because I thought the term 'unreliable narrator' referred to a narrator who you thought was one thing all the way through but turns out to be lying at the end. I'd cite an example, but that might be spoilers for someone. Perhaps I've got the term wrong.

I have to agree. I don't think that what you're describing is what is traditionally known as an "unreliable narrator". Sounds like you're just having fun with your characters. I don't think any writer should ever begrudge the "flow" that you're experiencing with your characters here. It's a problem if you can't shape it more precisely in your edit though.