Story: Two Little Kittens

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: "Two Little Kittens" by K. McCrite Deiser from the October 30, 2007 issue.

Tagline: As Kate handed over the lost kittens, she wondered who had rescued whom...

In A Nutshell: A woman is under her porch searching for her new neighbor's kittens. He had seen them dart under there and was too big to rescue them himself. After she saves both kittens, he invites her over to his place for a breakfast of appreciation.

Woman's World Standbys: Lost pets show up a lot in WW stories. This also falls under the "woman to the rescue" theme that's common as well.

Teaching Points: This story wraps up with just one sentence and the reader finishes with a warm fuzzy feeling because Kate and Brett have just met and are going to have breakfast together. I call this a soft Happily Ever After (HEA). There's no marriage or proposal, like you expect in full length romance novels, because there isn't room. In a 1000 word story it's better to aim for just the promise of a future romance.

If you're familiar with the three-act structure, you know that the climax of the story usually occurs near the end of act three, but often in these very short stories, you can mix that up a little. I think this is mostly because even when you begin reading the story, you're only a couple of minutes from reading the end! So there's little danger of losing your reader. Anyway in "Two Little Kittens," the climactic moment is when Kate grabs something that is not a kitten! Yikes!

Best Part: "I hadn't showered or brushed my hair. Worse, I hadn't had my coffee." Oh, that's funny. I can totally relate.

In My Humble Opinion: I think this is probably an editoral/proofer snafu, but try as I might I couldn't understand this sentence:

As I lay there, I saw that I was eyeball to boot.

However, I thought the story read fresh and I enjoyed the humor, too.