If you write short fiction with an eye to getting published, you’re probably hungry for advice on how to make your manuscript survive the slush-pile process. So give thanks to Doug Cohen, fiction editor for Realms of Fantasy Magazine, for sharing this insightful essay where he looks at the openings of genuine slush-pile survivor stories, and analyzes what it was about them that saved them from the default rejection note. Of course, not all parts of the writing process are quite so easily explained – witness Jim van Pelt talking about where story ideas come from. [Cross-posted to VCTB]