The Unreliable Narrator

I watched The Sixth Sense again two nights ago. First, I suppose I should raise the obligatory red spoiler flag, although you'd have to have lived under a rock the past nine years to not know about one of the best plot twists ever put to film.

I'm fascinated with the unreliable narrator concept. I believe that we are the unreliable narrators of our own lives. Our experiences, emotions, values, fears-every aspect of our inner story is a veritable 64 Crayola box of shades and truths.

As my final pages loom, I worry about the predictability of my ending. Is it possible the story I've lived with for nine months, one as familiar to me as the scratches on my maple desk, is just as transparent to a new reader? Has the complete reveal of the story become so tiresome that I crave a mind-bending twist to wake up my weary imagination? I'm tempted.

In my previous novel, Chasing Midnight, I experimented with an unreliable narrator and it worked. Completely and, I hope, memorably. Will this become a signature of mine? Things not always what they seem?

Writer and director M. Night Shyamalan is the crown prince of unreliable narration. In The Sixth Sense, Bruce Willis' character, Dr. Malcolm Crowe, does not arrive at the truth of his own death until the movie's final scene. The audience feels the impact alongside Malcolm, a moment of ultimate identification and perfect oneness with the character. In Shyamalan's 2004 film, The Village, Lucas and Ivy prove unreliable as the truth about the community is revealed. The result is a richer understanding of motivation and character than if the story had been told from the elder's viewpoint.

Memento, Donnie Darko and an entire list of some of my favorite movies use unreliable narrators. It reminds me of old episodes of The Twilight Zone I would lap up when I was ten where the characters suddenly realized they were figurines in a dollhouse or part of a small microcosm in an alien world. Maybe a bit deus ex machina so prevalent in science fiction of the time, but the reversal of perspective is a theme I gravitate to. Even Lost has dipped its toes into this form of narrative twist. But do audiences ever feel betrayed?

Writers enter into an emotional contract with the reader in the first few pages and build a healthy relationship of trust. Just as writers want to create a tale worthy of the paper on which it's printed, readers want to immerse themselves in a story worthy of their expectations.

Is a twist so monumental that it has the capacity to upend every thread, every realization to that moment, the ultimate betrayal of that trust?

Chime in...

Why Six? I Have No Idea.

Who am I to stand in the way of web karma? Thanks to Melanie, I'll subject everyone here to a self-indulgent display of six unspectacular things about me. Maybe someone will realize we were separated at birth or that my simultaneous affinity for Sebastian Bach and Willie Nelson is wholly disturbing and block the Vortex feeds. Nevertheless...onward.

1. My musical tastes are polar. In one day I can wax nostalgic on Johnny Cash or Waylon Jennings and remember long family car rides across the Texas panhandle when I was ten, then turn on the arena rock satellite channel and know every word of an Anthrax song. Top forty makes me want to pull my fingernails out with pliers. I use music to connect to my stories and characters, but I can't listen while I write.

2. I try not to eat while I write-it's distracting and messy-but if I do, it's either the heavier-than-a-brick lemon bar at Spot #2 or it's black pepper popcorn in a porcelain snowman bowl. Hey, it's hot here. A girl can dream, right?

3. My most hated chore is matching socks. Normally, I'm a patient individual, but it all seems so cyclical and pointless. I'd rather send the masses to kneel at the altar of the sock basket each day. Dig, people. Dig!

4. In most of my recent dreams, I'm back in college. I have no idea what this means.

5. I completely understand why the show "Wipeout" is such a hit. The host's sarcasm along with my propensity to giggle madly at the ungraceful, physical misfortune of others-and myself-has evoked tears at times. This, no doubt, comes from the same place within that has appreciated History of the World, Part 1 and Airplane more times than should be allowed.

6. My secret writing fantasy is to ghostwrite a series for beginning chapter book readers that is so wildly popular, movies and McDonald's tie-ins soon follow. The income stream will make me independently wealthy so I can afford a mountain cottage to hole up in and write commercial fiction.

Here's where I deviate from the rules. If you like, pretend I tagged you. If the thought of a meme saddled to your web persona like an albatross leaves you cringing and clicking your browser's back button, have no fear. Everyone here is off the hook.

Have a great day!

Traditional or Enhanced?

Author websites have evolved. From the basic just the facts ma'am five page parking spot to a completely interactive experience that brings the author's work alive, who's to say what's most effective at snagging a potential reader's attention? Guessing here, but the closer the author gets to the saturated multi-media world, the more likely return visits translate into growing legions of fans.

Here are some I've stumbled across. Add your own and we'll take the tour together...

Random House's website for author Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club and seven other novels, delivers the web browser a taste of his work. From what I can piece together, the site is most closely related to his book Rant, although it contains more information on the author than the book. Contrast that to Chuck Palahniuk's author site, which seems as over the top as the porn queen premise for his latest book, Snuff.

Lisa Jackson's Left to Die characters get their own webpage complete with a Darth Vader-ish metallic wheeze for ambiance. Is that Chris O'Donnell alongside an orange reptilian alien? Also available, a map of Grizzly Falls, Montana, the fictitious site of the novel.

Powerhouse Nora Roberts sticks to a more traditional web presence, the only bling a small inset commercial by Penguin Putnam touting her latest release, Tribute.

Cherry Adair, romantic thriller author, brings her T-Flac world to life. Ladies, check out her operatives.

I can't list websites without plugging Rae Monet's work, a designer who created the cover art for Love, Texas Style, and whose author sites are breathtaking. While different from her typical art, her design for Colleen Collin's romance/mystery/PI blend seems perfect.

What kind of author site is most appealing to you?

Next up: I've been tagged...six unspectacular quirks about me. Seriously? Only six?

An Author's Fingerprints

I ask because I don't know the answer. How much author voice is too much?

I know the strengths and weaknesses of my own. I also strive for deep point of view with each viewpoint character. I'm careful to select consistent vocabulary and tweak dialogue to match the character's perspective and background. But if someone were to dump my pages in a sacrificial pile in the middle of a room with a dozen others, the cadence and word choice and description would give me away every time.

One scene contains the deep viewpoint of a less-than-educated Dutch immigrant in the 1880s American frontier. Another, a gritty cop from the present day. I've invested hours exploring the language they'd have used, the patterns of speech, distinctive words and phrases to set them apart. I've calibrated metaphors to their experiences and history. But somehow, when I read it aloud, the song is the same. The notes are me.

Is this something to strive for or suppress?

Despite the playfulness that trickles into my blog posts, my earnest writing is dark, introspective, dense. I come from the school of writing that believes not everyone desires to read a four hundred page novel at the speed of a bullet, like a quick fix of an illicit drug with no lasting impact. When did consuming a novel become a race? Are we thirsting for such quick gratification that we can't wade in a bit and look around?

Sure, I worry about pacing and stringing conflict with the right level of tension-probably more than most-but when a note hits just right in a symphony, it should be appreciated-a blink, a tear, even a second glance to wade into its perfection. The unfolding text is, after all, one reason readers still choose to pick up a book before watching the same story on screen. For one moment during the novel's course, let me savor a new detail of the human condition. An image as breathtaking as the sunset I forget to indulge in each day.

Probably separate topics for two different days, but they both speak to a writer's desire to sneak into a room, lay out a puzzle and tiptoe away into the background. The question is: How much of the author's fingerprints on the pieces is too much?

And since Sherry outlined the perfect song for her hero's struggle, I give you mine.

Dark. Light. Creativity. Laughter. And Bribes

It's link day because I proclaim it to be. Actually, I'm on a wicked self-imposed deadline, so enjoy these things I've been wanting to share:

It's not about the annoying sound byte of birds when you click on this, although that does add atmosphere. It's about the hauntingly brilliant mind that was Poe. Enjoy.

For readers who want to get their freak on-their control freak-the no-risk book selection tool. If only editors and agents calibrated this thing to market demand.

A feast for the eyes, to stir the muse.

And a comprehensive collection of the funniest beer ads ever created.

That about cover it? Dark, light, creativity and laughter. Yep, that'll do. Happy Thursday!

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Sherry Davis, Vortex regular and member of the flip flop sisterhood of critique, is celebrating her August e-book release, Here Comes the Bribe, from The Wild Rose Press. Here's what reviewers say:

"I shed tears. I laughed. I thoroughly enjoyed this great story! (5/5 hearts)"
~Brenda Talley, The Romance Studio

"Had me captivated from the very beginning. (4 books)"
~ Jasmine, The Long and Short of It

"A fun, romantic read. I would love a sequel! (5/5 hearts)"
**Reviewer Top Pick**
~Diana Coyle, Night Owl Romance

more reviews...


A single administrative assistant accepts her temporary boss’s offer to masquerade as his fiancée to keep his matchmaking grandmother out of his personal life and out of the way while he negotiates a high-profile merger for his family-owned company. In exchange, she’ll get the down payment for the loan she needs to keep her ex from selling her condo out from under her.

But neither of them counted on the lines blurring between real and pretend--or for the temporary arrangement to leave them both longing for something more permanent.

Sherry is a huge part of who I am as a writer. She's as talented spinning an intricate urban fantasy as she is tapping into that rare dark humor I can only aspire to. Today's most valuable link.

The Tale of Fabritzio and the Seed

Everyone on the alphabet rug. It's story time here at the Vortex.

Envision a genius named Fabritzio. I'd give you my image, but he's SO not wearing a Members Only jacket. He's a physicist specializing in quantum entanglement and has discovered time travel (and you thought suspension of disbelief of the hot Italian scientist was difficult). In the present day, he has a wife, two daughters and a Boston Terrier.

On a muggy August day, he steps into his time machine, returns to his 1980 Ivy League life and re-discovers his first love. After many failed attempts to return to the present day, his carnal nature takes over. Is it infidelity?

This time, poor Fabritzio stumbles upon his future wife in a coffee shop in New York. It's 1985, the year they first dated. After a whirlwind day of strolling violinists and mind-numbing conversation, Fabritzio remembers the exact moment he fell in love with her and they consummate their relationship while she's still seeing his twenty-two year old self. Did Fabritzio cheat on himself?

A result of kicking his own ass, Fabritzio plummets back into 1920's Iowa. In a cornfield, he's rescued by a beautiful young woman and grows to accept he'll never return to his future life. He pledges his undying love for her only to find out she's his grandmother. Is it incestuous if he hasn't yet existed?

What if Fabritzio had taken his wife with him? In 1982 Alps, while each were backpacking through the countryside with their previous spouses, they steal away to a secluded cottage. Is it adultery?

Thus, the complex beauty of time travel. Where other authors would be sentenced to a small print run at some obscure house for injecting these taboos into their novels, all of these internal and external conflicts are completely plausible and accepted in time travel. The ethical challenges characters face can be staggering; the choices laid out, the deepest measure of human nature.

If a side order of taboo in time travel is to your liking, here's two to get you started:



As for Fabritzio and his Captain Kirk panache for spreading his temporal seed, his ultimate punishment will be the forever kind of clinch-cover, waxed man-titty pose on my time travel series on the NY Times list. Futuristically speaking, of course.

On second thought, you can have him.

* * *

This week, look for a smidgen about my CP's new release, Here Comes the Bribe, an answer to the question: How much author voice is too much? and a fun tour through the new generation of author websites. If you've seen a fantastic author site lately, send me the link: la-mitchell@la-mitchell.com so I can include it.

Today's brain niggle: "Never Too Late", Three Days Grace

Sunday Productivity

Enough said about today. I have to go get my stuff done...