These are opening lines for what may be a NaNoWriMo project, “Al’s Everything Store”

1. Show us something interesting about a major character (ideally the lead protagonist). 

GeorgeAnn was interested in three things: making things, making enough money to buy the stuff she needed to make things, and, well, maybe she was only interested in two things, but she loved her family and tried to involve them in her projects whenever possible.

2. Set something unusual and interesting in motion.

The miniature windmill generated enough power from the breeze provided by the electric fan to light twelve miniature street lamps in what would someday be a model of the town of Inspirationville. 

3. Establish the setting with a striking detail, ideally one that sets the mood.

Al’s Everything Store had everything at one time or another, just not all the time. It was the destination and delight of bargain hunters, eclectic collectors, and anyone curious about how many odd things there were for sale that were never successful in other stores.

4. Introduce an unusual relationship for the main character (with other characters, himself, his surroundings, and/or the readers).

Ever since she discovered the rickety stairs to the balcony at the rear of Al’s Everything Store, GeorgeAnn had made the dusty loft area her personal project space. A sort of unofficial back office above the store’s real back office, the space had once been used to display animated puppets—a talking moose, a bear reaching for a honey pot, a nodding cow. That was back before Al’s was an Everything Store and the building housed a hunting and farm supply store. There were still parts of the puppets up there. GeorgeAnn had canabalized them and used the bits to build her own variations: a crane that moved tissue boxes from one side of the room to the other, a marble race, and a scary mutant moose-cow creature that made weird sounds and snorted smoke at Halloween.

5. Introduce problems and/or conflicts.

Between helping at the store, watching her four younger siblings, and her own projects, GeorgeAnn never had a lot of time for friends. In middle school, that hadn’t been a problem. Now that she was in high school, she noticed that kids made fun of her behind her back. They weren’t her friends, nor did they want to be.

6. Subvert expectations and/or set up eye-catching contrasts, like exploding grandmothers.

Building a scale wind generator powered by the breeze from an electric fan is tough. Especially when the electric fan is from a lot of cheap imports that failed to clear customs as fans because of their poor quality and had to be labeled, ‘table decorations.’ Such was the kind of merchandise that often ended up at Al’s Everything Store.