Story: "For the Love of Max" by Karen Nikula from the May 8, 2007 issue.

Tagline: Lucy lost her heart to the beautiful golden retriver--and then to his owner...

What follows is an analysis of a Woman's World story with a mind toward what works and doesn't work for me as a writer, peppered with some personal opinion, too. :)

Woman's World loves dog stories. This one is about a woman who is watching the dog of a soldier stationed in Iraq. It's got four acts, instead of three: Scene with sister, backstory, scene with sister continued, and then the climactic ending when the soldier comes for his dog.

As I've mentioned before, you usually don't get much physical description of the characters. In fact, we get nothing at all on Lucy, and Brian is only described as "better-looking than the picture he'd emailed me." So, if you're writing for WW, keep this in mind when trying to keep to the 1000 word limit.

Best Part: He knelt, giving Max hearty strokes as the dog wagged his tail furiously. Awww, that tugs my heart. A soldier coming home to his dog.

In My Humble Opinion: I wish Brian had been a little more alpha and indicated his interest in Lucy first, or at least didn't blush. This story was cute, but it didn't thrill me.

Grade: B-

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Deadline May 29, 2007