More stuff to keep in mind

SETTING: Take yourreader to new worlds and introduce them to fascinating people interacting withinan unusual environment and culture. I'm not necessarily talking about "world-building"as found in science fiction and fantasy. Chinatown, New York City, is an exoticworld if that is not your home. Life is in the details—so give the details (of Chinatown, East L.A., South Beach,Sitka) that will surprise and delight your readers. As a rule of thumb, if you'reable to (without a total re-write) transport your plot to another location, youare not using the unique qualities of the story's setting to youradvantage.
ACTION: Readers cheer for characters who take things into their own hands. Not someone who merely reacts to events going on around her; or worse, hangs back, reflecting philosophically about it all. It's not what happens to the character that makes herinteresting, it's what she does about it. Passive characters areboring, and the story has no emotional power. Most of us have read "post-modern"short stories in which a lonesome urban apartment dweller perches on a windowsill gazingbelow at the river of strangers, and... doesnothing... for five or six pages. A college press or "literary" magazine might publish such plot-less fiction, but it won't find commercial success.  
HIGH STAKES: Bestsellingfiction involves weighty outcomes. The stakes don't have to be literallyearth-shattering—say, Flash Gordon preventing the destruction of the galaxy. Ifwe care about the character, and she has been trying for years to get pregnant,whether or not she conceives a child (by resorting to magic, or science?)matters to us. We care because we care about her. As a rule of thumb, shortstories can get away with lower stakes than a novel. If the villain's plot isto poison pigeons, readers are not going to care enough to sustain a 400-pagenovel. But a character who is a pigeon-lover trying to prevent a bird-haterfrom killing pigeons might hold us for the length of a short-story. Or, in anovel, it could work as a sub-plot. In any genre, all your main characters musthave clear goals, so your reader can know whether the character has won orlost. In fact, each scene should havea goal (for more on this, read the post on "Story Questions").