how i outline (spoilers: i don't)

[necessarian]

if you find outlining hard, perhaps you might try writing a synopsis instead? it gives the same sort of information, if you need to send it to a big bang partner, and i find it helps channel your focus into creating cohesion at the planning stage, rather than just progression. the way i do synopses (there's no right method!) is to think of it a bit like a movie, and summarise each key scene, making notes of location. and most importantly, i don't treat the synopsis as sacrosanct: key scenes are just that, and do not preclude the adding of other scenes or indeed subplots.

so, as an example (since it's come up on discord), i'm showing off my outline synopsis for my wolfstarbigbang fic from last year: Shadowplay. of course, there are spoilers beneath the cut! i hope this can help you out for outlining ideas, if you're stuck.

[West Berlin. Exterior; a deserted street at night time.]

Two unlikely candidates meet at the behest of their spymasters: an American and a Russian, both born in Britain. They knew each other, a long time ago. Sirius Black is an ex-con man now working for the CIA, and Remus Lupin is a KGB agent with a dark past.

Nine years previous, the tyrant Voldemort killed James, Lily, and Harry Potter… and then he disappeared off the face of the Earth. Now Voldemort is back, and he has a weapon. The Muggles’ Cold War is ending; the Soviet Union is falling apart. The Americans and Russians come together to get to this weapon and destroy it before it can get into the wrong hands.

It has been many years, but Remus still believes that Sirius betrayed the Potters to Voldemort, and now he is ready to betray Sirius right back. He has his orders: as soon as he gets the chance, he is to steal the weapon and its plans for the Russians.

[West Berlin. Interior; a dingy safehouse.]

Remus and Sirius get to know each other again, and familiarise themselves with their mission.

There are rumours that James Potter survived Voldemort’s attack and is now helping Voldemort develop his weapon. Only rumours. This much is certain: Lily Potter survived the attack and is living in East Berlin, in hiding. Agents Black and Lupin’s first mission is to find Lily and convince her to help them.

The agents are informed that Voldemort is likely being sheltered away from Britain by the Malfoy family, who have a villa in the wealthy French seaside town of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. Severus Snape, an old friend of Lily’s, helps maintain the villa, and they think that he could help them get access to James.

[East Berlin. Interior; a magical mechanic’s shop.]

Remus and Sirius find Lily working a dead-end job in East Berlin. It takes some convincing, but she agrees to join their team.

Before the trio can travel, the spies must assume new identities: Sirius is an expert in dark artefacts of the sort the Malfoys frequently purchase, and Remus is a wealthy Russian pureblood engaged to Lily. As Sirius is a cousin of Narcissa Malfoy and may be recognised, his work will not be directly with them, but to sniff out the local magical population and see what he can discover.

[Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. Interior; an opulent hotel.]

The trio check in at their hotel. They begin to make plans for their stay in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. They discover that the Malfoys are hosting a soirée the following evening, and Lily makes contact with Snape to secure an invitation for herself and her “fiancé.”

Sirius feels left out, but Remus warns him that it’s too risky. Sirius reluctantly agrees to spend his time otherwise.

[Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. Exterior; a semi-outdoor ballroom by the coast.]

Remus and Lily arrive at the Malfoy soirée and mingle. While Lily is talking to Narcissa—or more accurately, being talked down to by Narcissa—Snape corners Remus. He tells Remus he recognises him, and could blow his cover at a moment’s notice if he so much as puts a finger out of line.

While Remus and Snape are talking, Sirius arrives in minimal disguise (a very fetching pair of sunglasses) and begins to make a scene. In a loud American accent, he makes it known that he’s an antiques dealer, and looking to buy while he’s in the area. He’s taken up on the offer by Narcissa, who doesn’t seem to recognise him.

Meanwhile, Lily and Remus cross paths with Lucius Malfoy, who at Snape’s suggestion invites them to lunch the next day. It is clear from Lucius’ manner that he has no interest in Lily, but in her wealthy Russian fiancé. During the conversation, Lucius says something that suggests James really is alive; once they’ve all left the soireé, Sirius and Remus make plans to break into Manoir Malfoy later that night and see if they can find James.

[Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. Interior; Manoir Malfoy at night.]

Remus and Sirius break into the Manoir, but they don’t know where to start. They search for secret rooms but become increasingly frustrated as there’s nothing to find. After an argument nearly gets them captured, they’re separated. Sirius has the chance to escape on his own, but he goes back for Remus.

[Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. Interior; the hotel.]

They narrowly make it back to the hotel just as Narcissa sends a Patronus to convey that the location of her rendez-vous with Sirius has changed, and that the date has been expedited to tomorrow. Hoping that Narcissa doesn’t know what his Patronus is, Sirius has no choice but to reply by the same means, lest he come off even more suspicious.

With renewed closeness after their close escape, Remus and Sirius spend the night together, and Sirius tells Remus the true story of what happened on the night the Potters were attacked. Suddenly, Remus is a lot less certain in his ability to betray Sirius at the end of his mission.

The next morning, Sirius goes to the Manoir on his own to meet Narcissa. Lily convinces Remus that it would be better for her to meet with Lucius and Snape on her own, because Snape might talk more openly to her alone. Remus agrees on the proviso that he’s allowed to surveil the meeting from afar.

[Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. Exterior; the lush gardens of Manoir Malfoy.]

Remus watches Lily’s lunch meeting from the gardens outside the Manoir. In a moment alone with Snape, Lily double-crosses her companions. She reveals their true identities, and that they are spies who seek Voldemort’s weapon for themselves and are using her to get to James. Remus watches this happen from afar and rushes to inform Sirius.

[Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. Interior; Manoir Malfoy.]

Remus arrives at the place where Sirius had been meeting Narcissa, and finds that he’s gone. He infiltrates Manoir Malfoy and finds Sirius being tortured for information by his estranged cousin Bellatrix. It is revealed that the sisters knew who Sirius was all along and were waiting to get him alone to capture him. Remus duels Bellatrix, who lets slip that Voldemort’s base is on the Malfoys’ private island off the coast of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat.

[Île des Sortilèges. Interior; Voldemort’s base.]

Remus and Sirius set off to find James. They infiltrate the base on Île des Sortilèges but they run into Snape. Although still hostile, Snape reveals that he’s an undercover agent for Albus Dumbledore, and that their causes are aligned in trying to stop Voldemort from finishing his weapon. The problem is, Snape doesn’t know where precisely the Malfoys are hiding Voldemort, James, and the weapon—they don’t trust him enough.

The three of them search for Lily, only to find her deep in discussion with a group of Death Eaters—and James Potter. But if they were to storm the scene, they would be vastly outnumbered. They overhear that James has been stalling on the weapon, and that Lily’s presence will hopefully persuade him to continue. James says that with a few hours work the weapon should be complete. A Death Eater decides, in that case, that they will leave the island at midnight via a Portkey bound for Voldemort’s true hiding place.

Once the Death Eaters leave James and Lily, the spies burst in. James is reunited with his old school friends, and they discover the true nature of Voldemort’s weapon—a boy soldier with powers beyond imaginable, Harry Potter. On the night that Voldemort came to Godric’s Hollow, Lily offered to go ahead and hold him off, while James protected Harry. But Voldemort never came for her. He never knew she was there; if he did he would likely have killed her. Voldemort took James and Harry. Lily, grieving and confused, disappeared.

Lily also explains that she’s an agent for Dumbledore, and she had betrayed Remus and Sirius because she knew Remus would overhear and be able to track her to the island. (She apologises for the mess with Sirius and Bellatrix, even though they both insist she doesn’t need to.) She and Snape share a moment of confusion, as neither of them knew they were working for the same person.

[Île des Sortilèges. Exterior; a cloudless night on the rocky hills of the island.]

Close to midnight, a lone Death Eater escorts the Potter family towards the Portkey. Remus, Sirius, and Snape lie in wait, and when the time is right they duel the Death Eater—and his backup—and ready themselves to escape. But Voldemort, having realised that the Potters missed their Portkey, arrives on the island to see what the hold-up has been. Snape runs, as he doesn’t want to blow his cover as a Death Eater.

A stirring Death Eater tells Voldemort that James has said the weapon is ready, so they are to go ahead with the ritual. This ritual, it is explained, will see Voldemort turning Harry into a horcrux by killing James. Voldemort is guided by a half-remembered prophecy about a child who would grow to defeat him, and he chose instead to steal the child as his own and raise him as a super-soldier with his father’s reluctant help.

Voldemort aims a killing curse at James, but Remus, Sirius, and Lily defend him. It gets complicated when Bellatrix returns; Sirius holds her off, but not for long. In the midst of fierce battle, the final blow against Voldemort is delivered in a moment of fury by the young Harry. He has fulfilled the prophecy and is now powerful enough to defeat Voldemort. Harry cannot truly kill Voldemort—there are other horcruxes containing parts of his soul—and Harry does not try to kill him, only to disarm him. Voldemort is severely weakened by the force of Harry’s power and retreats.

[Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. Interior; the hotel.]

The group return to the hotel as dawn is breaking, to find Albus Dumbledore awaiting their arrival. Dumbledore reveals that that he had been the one who’d told the Russians and Americans that she was alive. He had then planted Snape with the Malfoys, telling Snape that he had intel that someone would try to use Lily to get to James. Snape’s role was to convince the Malfoys that Lily would be useful in getting James to continue his work, and Lily would be the perfect conduit to let in the other spies to save the day—the details of that, Dumbledore leaves vague. What’s done is done.

With the mission over, Remus and Sirius must decide what to do about their original missions. Sirius reveals that he, too, had been given orders to take “the weapon” for the Americans, but they both agree that it would be unfair to do anything other than let Harry return to England with his parents. Dumbledore offers them protection should they choose to defect, and they take it up, uneasy in the knowledge that being in his service is even more dangerous than working with the CIA or the KGB. But they’ll be doing it together, and with their newfound friendship—and then some—that’s what matters.

[King’s Cross. Interior; Platform 9¾.]

Almost a year has passed. Harry is seen off to his first year at Hogwarts by his extended family, two parents—very much alive—and his honorary uncles. All was w—

The scene is interrupted by the arrival of an owl. It lands in Lily’s hands, but its missive is intended for her, Remus, and Sirius. The letter is from Dumbledore. Voldemort is still at large, kept alive by an unknown number of remaining horcruxes. Something must be done. Good thing that Britain’s best spies are on the case.