Well, you're smarter than I am, James.
caw
Probably not. I'm not even as smart as I am. But I developed the knack of telling what editors want, and how they want it, very early on, and I did it from reading the magazines.
I've said this before, but I think it's worth saying again. "Well-Written" should always be a prerequisite, which means good use of language, good
mood and tone, good flow, and good rhythm. But beyond this, editors want what no one else but
you can give them, as long as it fits within the general scope of the magazine.
Too many read magazines in order to send editors stories like those the editor has already published. The reason to read magazines is so you can send editors stories that are, in substantive ways,
unlike anything the editor has already published. Editors want a detailed,
realistic location/setting that is unlike all the others. Editors want detailed,
realistic characters who speak
realistic language, and who are
unlike all the other characters who inhabit stories they've already published. They want your next door neighbor who is what he is because of where he grew up, who does what he does because his daddy did it, who speaks the way he speaks because that's how people really speak where he grew up, who believes what he believes because of parental influence, and because of whatever his life experience has been. What they usually get is Captain Kirk, or Mike Hammer, or some other character the editor has seen a thousand times, and that readers know should not be in a new story. They really do want to meet new characters who behave and speak in a manner only someone who grew up where that character did would act and speak. They want the kids you played with when you were a kid, the teachers you had in school, the next door neighbor you talk to over the fence, the guys you play poker with every Saturday, and the people you work with Monday through Friday. And they want them as they really are, not as you would have them be.
They want a setting detailed enough that readers could go there and pick up a dime the mill operator dropped when he was getting a Coke from the old pop machine that sits in front of the local garage. What they get is a setting the editor has seen ten thousand times, and that isn't realistic, anyway, because the writer has never been within a thousand miles of the place, and hasn't done the hours and hours and hours of smart research it takes to bring such a setting to life, or because the writer doesn't use the right detail to bring a place he does know alive. They want a writer who knows his setting so well, and who shows it so well, a reader could go there and walk through it blindfolded without stubbing his toe.
All of this is part of writing well, all of it is part of telling a story well, all of it is part of building realistic characters, and none of it seems all that difficult to me, as long as you can write well, and as long as you learn what it means to give editors yourself.