NaNo Plotting

So I was going to have some more modeling stuff today, but there was some issue with my rigging and I didn't have the energy to keep working on it. So instead, I'll bring you all up to speed on the novel idea I'm working on for November. At the moment, it looks like while I may not be officially attempting to hit the 50k goal in November for NaNoWriMo, I'll probably be starting this novel then. 
The novel is still in the very early plotting stages, but I have some snitppets of information that I can hand out.


So here, we shall start with the Story Question:
When her father disappeares, 15 year old apprentice artificer Ariadne sets out to find him. But will she succeed when her new mentor seeks to use her for his own ends, a secret shadow-council seeks to destabilize everything she holds dear, and everyone starts blaming her for a rampaging automaton terrorizing the streets?


For those of you who haven't heard, I'm using this story to explore a little of the Steampunk stuff I've been looking at, and I'm also leaning towards a YA novel this time around. Whether it'll stay there remains to be seen. So I'm setting this in a mostly-victorean era, like most Steampunk, but with my own little twists. The steam machines are quite a bit more pervasive (hence steampunk), and are created through a craft I'm calling Artifice. I didn't want artifice to be purely mundane science, so I've included a little bit of elemental power, with inspiration drawn from the Herbie Brennan books I reviewed earlier. Each machine is powered by Trapping an element in a labrynth mechanism. As in my previous novel(s), there are 6 elements (subject to change): Fire, Water, Light, Earth, Air, Shadow. 


After discussing the ideas with a friend for a few days, I've settled into the understanding that each of the elements will be used primarily by different groups within society. Many artificers will dabble in a 2nd, to try and bring aspects of another guild's work into their own (I use the word Guild here loosely, but that's some of the inspiration for the groups). 


Fire - Fire is the element of the military. This covers both the standing military, as well as police, city guards, etc. They primarily focus on weapons and armaments.
Water - Water is the elemnt of the Artisans. They make little tools and devices to make both life, and their own work, easier and more enjoyable. I'm thinking that I'll aslo stick entertainers into this group, but I'm not sure.
Light - Light is the elemnt of the Brotherhood, the ruling religious organization. I'm seeing them mostly as a monastic order at the moment, though they're not without their share of combatants.
Earth - This element is used by the builders, people who make the buildings (or large scale demolitions) and other large construction projects that people need for society. The line between them and Artisans are pretty thin, but I see them more as making large scale projects, rather than tools.
Air - This is the element of transportation. So we'll get to explore airships a little, though even cars / motorcycles / whatever, or maybe even air-powered gondolas to run the Canals of Venice. 
Shadow - This is the element of teh Guild (this is why I said I'm using guild loosely). In this context, the guild is pretty much the Thieves and Assassins of the country. they have enough power to keep the Brotherhood from completely snuffing them out, and shadow is used as a secondary element to bring in aspects of counterintelligence even by legitimate organizations.


Beyond that, things are getting a bit fuzzy. One of the major sideplots to the novel is going to involve her Licensing Exam. The Brotherhood requires that all trained Artificers be licensed (which obviously has some undercurrent of control implied), and will punish practitioners of unlicensed artifice. Ariadne is shaping up to be the kind of person who reaches a bit too far, and tends to get in over her head. For her project, she's going to try and make an Automaton. All her research will suggest that she needs to either master Light, Fire, and Water, or Shadow, Earth and Air (two trinities, still working on a cool name :p), though there's no good explanation for why that'd be better than any two alone. 


That's most of what I have so far. Structure-wise, I'm exploring a new concept: the 3-act, 8-sequence structure as proposed by Alexandra Sokoloff. However, rather than planning for the 15-minute sequence (this is derived from filmmaking), I'm going to try and have about 2-3 chapters, each with at least 1-2 scene/sequel pairs. This is fitting with with the 3-5 scenes she suggests should be present in a sequence for film. However, rather than having my leaves be just scenes, I'm replacing them with Jim Butcher's Scene-Sequel pairs. 


Now I just have to go about filling in the middles.