Would love to read your summaries if you have them posted somewhere. Would be a great learning curve for me as this was my first rejection (planning for more ;P)
I've found the best single thing that's helped me, both in terms of conciseness, product and effort focus, and gaining empathy for my target audience, is to see what I can cut out and what I can simplify. Focusing is seemingly among the most important, and often most difficult, tasks.
But I'm just some repeat offender/y-comb reject.