The Step-Outline is the simplified, concise, spine of your story.

It sets out the route that your story will take, in the form of the scenarios and plot-points that, strung together, in this particular order, form the 'stations' that your audience will visit on their journey through your story-world.

It is here, in the Step Outline that you can start to consider the SIGNIFIERS that you are going to place, like clues, so that the audience can consciously and subconsciously, piece the story together.

These signifiers can be in the form of:

Your Characters - 

Posture, behaviour, expression, response

Costume, make-up

What they are doing

What they aren't doing (that you would expect them to be doing within the context of the situation)

The Location -

Location can be used to echo what a character is feeling internally

Location can be used to contrast with how a character is feeling (sad at a party, happy at a funeral, lonely in a busy street)

Time of Day - Season -

These provide texture and atmosphere (Night = scary, spring = love...etc)

Props -

A dripping tap = tension, irritation, hard-up/unloved etc

A ticking clock/watch = tension, encroaching deadline, boredom

ANYTHING that you see and hear will be read by the audience

That is why you have to be very careful about what is seen and heard, so that the audience don't get confused and mis-understand your intended story.

Example - The Step-Outline for 'Harder' (working title 'Gardens'):

You will notice that some of the description I used in my Step-Outline is carried forward into the Treatment (in the next section); if something works and is concise/economical, keep it, use it, carry it on and use it in the further development of your script.