Loyalty:  for sellable characters and plot

Novels that have intensity of plot and characterization will often show us the concept of “loyalty” in some way. Award-winning stories of any type usually incorporate a loyalty issue somehow.

If your manuscript has been passed on by agents, publishers, or readers, or if your story feels shallow or too simple, perhaps a quick fix is obvious—develop the concept of “loyalty.”

Loyalty issues give our stories depth.

Characters like to think about loyalty. Does your character value it? In what way? What context? With whom? Have they voiced it in dialogue? Is it in their thoughts? Did you “show” loyalty?

Being loyal is serious business and readers recognize that. Loyalty is the stuff of lovers, of enemies, of soldiers, of citizens of countries.

Humans and nature value loyalty for survival. That’s why tension is related to loyalty, and tension is a necessary ingredient of storytelling.

Set up a loyal relationship in the beginning of your novel, and then challenge it by the Midpoint or later and see how different your novel or script feels.

There is a loyalty to place and things, too, and loyalty to the memory of somebody or something. Where in your novel or story or script have you mentioned that? Try it. It may bring in poignancy that surprises you.

You may need to introduce a new character or situation to help plumb the depths of “loyalty.” Maybe that’s what your manuscript has needed all along.

A breech in a loyalty situation is taken seriously by most or all cultures. That’s another reason it works so well in our literature. You’re writing about something universal.

We also recognize when somebody is loyal to the wrong person or thing or concept, or a tired tradition. Emotions get wrapped up in what the character “should” do or not. Tensions rise—just what you want. Dialogue becomes more pointed, more interesting. Characters have more reason to act perhaps.

When loyalty issues get showcased there is more depth to such a story because readers get involved with their own opinions. Your story becomes memorable.