Story: The Audition

What follows is an analysis of a Woman's World story with suggestions/observations for people who want to sell stories to WW, peppered with some personal opinion, too. :)

Story: "The Audition" by Elicabeth Hawn from the September 25, 2007 issue.

Tagline: Lizzie hoped this Paul Verner guy would be the right man for the job...

In a nutshell: Lizzie's ex-fiance is getting married, and she's feeling blue. She works as activities director for an assisted living facility. Madeline, the person who usually brings in pets to entertain the seniors, can't make it. Paul fills in and does a fantastic job. Turns out he's a widow and Madeleine is looking for someone to fill in for her on a regular basis. Lizzie likes that idea.

Teaching Point: Moving a character along a character arc is something to strive for even in these very short stories. Here, Lizzie starts out feeling blue. Her first step along her journey is when she checks out "his ring finger--something I haven't done since Gary dumped me." A little later in the story, she realizes, after watching Paul at work, that her ex is a doofus and she's better off without him. By the end of the story, she's thinking about Paul romantically.

Woman's World Stand-bys: A dog and a matchmaker.

In My Humble Opinion: This story didn't pack a lot of umph for me.