Writing to A Target Market

So, as some of you may know I am currently writing a novella to a targeted market. I found an anthology call with an e-publisher and decided to try my hand at it. So far it has been an interesting and fun experience. I spent a day researching the subject matter and began to panic as I went through fairy tale after fairy tale trying to find something that was familiar, but not to famous. I did find one and began working on the idea in my head, but another idea based on a super famous fairy tale just kept butting in and insisting that I listen to it. I finally gave up that night and allowed her to tell me her story and the hero to tell me his (I didn't get a lot of sleep that night as they would not shut up). What's funny is I still fought it the next morning. I kept insisting that I didn't want to do a famous fairy tale, but this time it was my hero that wouldn't shut up. He wanted his story told. I'm now almost at the required word count though still have several key scenes to write to finish it up. I'm glad as I know the beginning was filled with a lot of fluff and back story so I can edit that and condense it without fear of going below the minimum word count requirement.

So, have any of you produced to a direct idea? Was it to a particular publisher that you wished to be published by? Was it to a contest? A short story or anthology call? How did it go?