Don't Mess With Me (Sydney Salter)

I'm not big on lying or unreliable narrators. I do remember being walloped by the revelations about the narrator in Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl, I did not see that coming, but more often I feel manipulated by stories with twists like that. I hated one of this season's Big Books because of its unreliable narrator. Ugh! Don't mess with me. I think it's too easy to make a reader feel tricked by a plot device and much harder to make an unreliable narrator necessary to the story.

I don't even like lies of omission and I'm still angry that I gave the author of the memoir Strangers my money--when it turns out she really misrepresented her circumstances. And doesn't need anyone's money.

That said, I am not perfect, of course, and while I rarely outright lie, I do omit key information sometimes. As a teenager I did stand in front of a traffic court judge for expired tabs, and when he asked me, "are you currently driving the car?" I answered, "no." The car was parked outside and I was standing inside the courtroom, technically not driving. And I haven't always corrected my spouse when he low-balls a guess about the cost of a pet's emergency vet visit. The cost of eye removal being disturbingly high.

But I really strive to write what is true about the human condition. I want my characters to sing with authenticity. There certainly are people who lie and exaggerate often, but I struggle to relate to people who don't tell the truth. So far I haven't written any unreliable narrators. Delusional people, yes, but not purposely so. But I'll never say that I'll never write about a big fat liar. I do know a few...