That's really different for everyone, I think. I'm sure someone can download the Beat Sheet for themselves and give you a description, but me, myself, personally, I just write out the basic plot in bullet-points to help me as I go along. Everything else I just make up on the spot.
For a more detailed outline, you could write some notes on index cards (small, rectangle pieces of card or paper) - these might tell you what happens in various scenes. Then, you can re-arrange the cards, to see if a different order of those scenes works well, or to understand the plot better.
You could use a timeline, instead, or draw up a flowchart or spider diagram (I think that's what they're called) to write down ideas and develop them.
Basically, an outline is just a sketch of your plot. It can be extremely detailed, with lots of minute notes on each scene, or vague, with only the basics. Which works best for you depends, but the latter generally allows for more imagination when you're actually writing the script. The former, however, can really help with editing, because you can look through your outline for improvements instead of going straight to your script.
Here's a very simple, example outline:
- Michael goes to the cafe after a funeral.
- Michael meets Donna.
- Donna likes Michael. Michael hates Donna.
- They keep bumping into each other after this, thus lots of awkward, embarrassing and annoying incidents.
- In true, cliche romcom style, they fall in love.
- They finally realise this at another funeral.
- They live happily ever after.
A more complicated/detailed outline might flesh out the 'they keep bumping into each other...' part. That's just how I might write an outline ;)
Use bullet-points, or cards, or different computer files and see what works best for you. Best o' luck! =)
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