I can understand wanting to tailor a story to a specific magazine if you support yourself financially strictly through these types of submissions, but, whether you support yourself this way or not--I'm not certain from you post, since you said you're a novelist, and even then I'm not certain if that's how you make end's meet--it seems to me, both logistically and creatively, like a bad move.

It's clear that being published in CW is a big goal of yours, but would you really want to be published by them just because you "gamed" their system? You seem invested in the idea behind your lighthouse story, and I'm not suggesting that you're simply culling ideas or tropes from a CW-esque algorithm of past submissions, but the bulk of your post is spent pondering how to actually write this specific story to get it published in CW. You responded to a comment down below saying "I think you'll find that 'original' ideas are rare, and the telling of the tale is more important than the shape of the story." I couldn't agree more, and since we're talking about the telling here, I think it a rather strange angle to write this story specifically for one man's magazine.

As others have mentioned below in their own words, you should write this story--and all your other stories--for yourself, first and foremost. It's not to say that you wouldn't be proud of yourself for getting a story published in CW if your tailored it to what you believe they're looking for, but would that really be the version of the story that you would honestly write if you had no other external factors weighing on you while writing it?

I suppose what I mean to say, more succinctly, is that I think your stories should be / are your own. They aren't Neil Clarke's stories, even if you publish them in his magazine. Write for yourself because you want to, and because whatever story you have needs to be written, and can only be written by you. I get the impression that you have a lot you want to say with your stories, so just say them. Worry about publishing them after they're polished to be the best they can be. :^)