Let's say a TV network ordered for your television series 13 episodes for you to write, how would you go about doing it, most especially outlining it? I'm trying to do it so bad but can't get it right. My series is extremely character-driven and don't know how to outline it.
I suppose the first question would be are you aiming for an overarching plot that runs through the series? Or perhaps the series to be more stand-alone but linked through the characters? Some series manage a level of both but in different balances (for example crime dramas tend to have stand-alone cases but the relationships between the recurring characters are seen throughout).
Decide how you want the series to start. Decide how you want the first season to end. Come up with a big twist for the middle. That's episodes 1, 6+7, and 13. How do you get from 1 to 6? Then how do you get from 7 to 13? Fill in the broad information, then fill it out. Without knowing the nature of the show, it's hard to be more specific.
The first thing you write is a pilot script of the first episode. It should be in full script form and in the proper format, roughly one page per minute of screen time. That's 22 pages for a 30 min show and 44 for an hour. You have nothing without a pilot script. The next thing usually is come up with "springboards" for your remaining episodes. These are usually one or two paragraph summaries of the main plot and any subplots of each episode. From there, the process usually moves to an outline of each episode and then a finalized script. All of these eventually get assembled into a series bible. These include all the scripts as well as detailed descriptions of the show, characters, and main story arcs. Often for several seasons. One of the most important part of the bible includes something known as "rules" that dictate the characters' personalities and how they interact with each other. An example would be "Wiley Coyote chases Roadrunner. Wiley Coyote devices all sorts of elaborate traps to catch Roadrunner. Wiley Coyote is routinely clobbered by said traps but is never seriously hurt or killed." And so on.... The purpose of the bible is provide a compendium that OTHER WRITERS use to produce the show. The thing to bear in mind if you are serious about this is that networks do not buy scripts or ideas. They buy television shows, which include all the production, casting, directing, equipment, etc.... Those cost millions of dollars and the writing (while it has to be good) is the smallest afterthought in the process. If you want to write for television you almost always need to go to film school and catch a job with a production company. There are exceptions of course, but the movie/television business is nothing like the book publishing business. You need a fuckton of money and people to even think about turning a script into anything beyond a 44 pieces of paper.
I actually took a course in this at my local college. Homer P had the 'official' answer, but if you just want to get going with informal practice, keeping an eye to developing a real offering after a few years of experimenting, I think a good place to start would be to just write one episode first, and not getting too attached to it. The idea being that once you understand how to write around commercial breaks and how to build self contained stories that can be acted out within an hour or half hour show's time constraints (which depend on the network in question 'because commercials'), you'll have building blocks for a series. The next step will be chaining them together like chapters into a seasonal story arc. Something to consider if you're character focused: Some shows establish two dimensional over the top characters from the get-go, and don't develop their characters; also: the seasons may not contain a concept of story arc. Sitcoms are intentionally designed this way, for example. 'monster of the week' and 'adventure of the week' also rely on character stasis.
Progress each episode through the journey and change your character along the way. Examples: https://www.youtube.com/user/clickokDOTcoDOTuk/videos
