LibraryScenariosWhen co-authors disagree about narrative reliability and reader trust
Scenario

When co-authors disagree about narrative reliability and reader trust

My writing partner and I started this novel because we both love unreliable narrators, but now we're fighting about whether the reader should ever know what actually happened. She wants to preserve the ambiguity completely and I keep wanting to give subtle clues, and every chapter feels like we're writing two different books.

Mura
Online
The coach is replying

More people experience this than they realize.

What we've seen

Two writers discover their shared love of ambiguity masks fundamentally different beliefs about what fiction owes its readers.

Ideas that help explain it
Worth thinking about

“Where Are You with The novel — form and possibility?”

If this sounds familiar, the Library can help you find the bigger picture.