Understanding what an editor looks for is paramount.
Anne Leigh Parrish a fiction editor for Eclectica Magazine wrote an eye-opening post on how to avoid the same mistakes over and over. She also writes what she looks for in a story.
“… a story itself is a narrative where there must be a change in the reader’s understanding of the events, or in the protagonist’s understanding. You leave a story seeing something you didn’t see at the outset, something that makes sense of what’s come before….”
Viv Drewa - The Owl Lady 