Some thoughts on breaking story that have coalesced for me that you may find helpful. (This will be a long and ongoing thread).
1) Work big to small storywise: You're building a house. Don't start working on the fixtures until you're sure that's where the bathroom goes.

2) When ideas work they inherently spin out interesting character moments.
3) Good story creates more story.
4) When you're going in the wrong direction it feels like a slog. If you spend a suitable amount of time grinding gears, reassess.

5) Problems for the character are good, problems in the story are bad. Don't confuse them.
6) If you find yourself bending over backwards to steady a weak piece of story, replace it.
7) Logic problems are often opportunities to examine character motivations, or lack thereof.

8) Writers block is what happens when a story has gone down a deadend road. Retrace your steps & reroute from the last place you were excited.
9) When stuck, ask what the character would do next based on what they know and what we know about them.

10) Have fun! (I'm kidding...slightly...but use passion and enjoyment as indicators of whether or not the story is working. If you're bored, the audience likely will be as well).

11) Action scenes are not distinct from "character scenes" but a chance to test your characters' mettle, chart their growth or challenge their moral compass. Whether they succeed or fail we'll learn more about them.

12) Use every part of the buffalo when developing set pieces. Rather than just a chase or generic gun fight, pick specific concepts and locations with action and character choices that could only be made there.

13) Understand the expectations of your audience based on the genre you're working in. Surprises, twists, etc. work best when the audience *thinks* they understand the story.

14) Once the patterns of the show become evident, subtle permutations keep it fresh. Switching up normal character pairings can reveal interesting new dynamics. Larger form-breaking episodes often announce important shifts in story.

15) It is great to have a show bible as a road map but don't let it keep you from finding more interesting destinations along the way.
16) If character backstories aren't giving you story going forward they aren't engineered correctly.

17) Character conflict is strongest when it comes from differing points of view than when one character is obviously right.
18) When characters are complex plots can be simple.
19) Assuming organizations/groups think monolithically takes away options for plot and conflict.

20) Encourage the writers to NOT come in when under the weather. One bug can take down the whole staff. Don't be a hero.

21) Every room has a version of the phrase “a hat on a hat” or “bananas on bananas.” It’s a comedy phrase but applies to drama as well. Beware of diluting what already works by adding more to it.

22) While it is great and necessary to have flawed characters in drama, not all flaws are created equally. A Hero can be unfaithful, they can be wrathful, they can be stubborn. One thing they can rarely be: incompetent in their chosen field.

23) As with a first impression in life, character introductions have outsized importance. Often when an arc doesn't work it's because the character isn't introduced properly. The best introductions are a microcosm of everything you need to know about the character.

24) Think about character "chemistry" not just as sexual but as how any two characters, like chemicals, change or affect each other when in contact. Combine characters in scenes whose personalities create the most organic and explosive interactions.

25) The audience can be ahead of the characters but not for long, and mostly for the purpose of tension (the classic bomb under the table). The rare exception is mythology reveals which have a much longer shelf life.

26) Every detail of mythology doesn't need to be worked out beforehand (in fact, leave room for discovery). But knowing the core tenants--and how they will interact with and illuminate the characters--means mythology can drive story.

27) When an episode isn't working the thought is often to add elements--characters, plot, mcguffins--when the solution may be to pare down what is already there to find the simple thruline, and then rebuild only what is necessary.

28) For a TV budget and schedule, action should be built to be modular so if you are over budget you can shrink it without losing its essence or if you lose a location last minute you can alter the action and maintain the intention.

29) "Schmuck bait" is a term for a cliffhanger or act out that puts the Lead in mortal danger that can't possibly be fulfilled (because as the Lead they can't die). But it can get over-applied as "never put your leads in danger." 1/2

29a) If your Lead is endangered in such a way that the solution is neither simple, nor readily apparent, or raises greater show/mythology/character questions, then to me that isn't schmuck bait. Bottom line, is it compelling for reasons other than "Will He/She be okay?" 2/2

30) Villainous plans and conspiracies should be only as complex as necessary for what needs to be accomplished. The narrative complexity arises from the limited POV of the protagonists trying to thwart plans and complications from human nature which cause plans to go awry.

31) Mastermind villains who knew everything that would happen and caused all of it strain credulity and steal agency from the characters. Let them have to improv and shift the plan as the protagonist upends it. It makes both protagonist and antagonist more impressive.

32) To avoid the sag that often happens in the middle of the story, think of the rest of the story as a series of midway points. If X is going to happen what would need to happen first to allow for that...

32a) Each new midway point is an event to be built to so the middle of the story moves with pace and purpose. Think of it like a Roman temple with columns evenly spaced to hold up the roof. The columns are events, the roof is the story. Sagging means collapse.

33) File management is underrated. Figure out a consistent system and stick to it, especially when multiple parties are involved. Nothing is worse than doing a rewrite in the wrong draft of something and having to undo/redo it all again.

34) Story area->Studio Outline->Network Outline->Writer's Draft->Studio Draft->Network Draft->Production Draft->White->Blue->Pink->Yellow->Green->Goldenrod->Buff->Salmon->Cherry revisions...

If you're not good at taking notes and maintaining a vision, TV writing isn't for you.

35) Give characters "business" in a scene (small actions not directly related to plot). Subtly messing with another character, getting frustrated while trying to build something--anything that can spruce up dry exposition and reveal character--so long as it doesn't distract.

36) Often the scene (or line, or moment) that is getting heavily noted because it is causing confusion doesn't actually need to be in the script in the first place. Don't be afraid to answer a note with a cut when appropriate.

37) A good way to think about a character you're creating is to consider who will be their natural allies and enemies in the world of the show. If it's unclear who that is, they either don't belong or are wrongly constructed.

37a) When I say allies and enemies I don't mean if they are a cop their enemy is a criminal. Who is the other cop that they fight with because of their differing world views? Who is the criminal they can get along with because they share a certain code?

38) A mysterious villainous plot is great, provided the audience understands the stakes of it and the protagonist knows enough to give them driving action. (In Die Hard, Gruber's plan is a mystery but we know he is willing to kill for it, and McClane knows his wife is in danger.)

39) When characters tell each other things they already know that is Exposition. When a character enters a new situation it becomes Discovery. How you inform the audience effectively is a function of how you set the scene.

40) Arcs feel forced when character changes aren't compelled sufficiently by the plot. It's Newton's First Law as applied to character dynamics: characters at rest stay at rest, and in motion stay in motion -- unless acted upon by an outside force (the inciting incident).

41) Darkness is only perceived when counterpointed with light and vice versa. Juxtaposing organic humor with dark moments (and the reverse) brings both into stark relief and gives scenes and stories a sense of reality. Life doesn't artificially separate comedy and drama.

42) Generally speaking, the more characters in a scene, the less emotional they are. Two people can fall in love or tear each other's hearts out, five tend to solve crimes together.

43) "Set-up and payoff" is usually applied to jokes in comedy but is just as important for drama. An audience needs to be aware that a character's issue (or moment of mystery) exists in an episode before its resolution can be satisfying.

43a) The greater the distance between a set-up and payoff, the greater the importance of it should be. Small questions can be asked and answered within a scene, larger discreet questions within an episode. Big character questions/mysteries, within a season or over seasons.

44) When setting up season long arcs keep a board with all of the loose threads that need to be tied up. Makes it easier to not drop plots in the fog of the season and sometimes makes surprising and unexpected connections more evident.

45) Every time a gun is brandished on screen without affect the threat of it is weakened. Don't have characters just pull out weapons for a moment of tension. If it happens it needs to change the conditions of the scene and have consequences.

46) Keep snacks out of the writers room. It's hard enough to not gain weight on staff without staring at candy and baked goods all day.

47) The tricky part of having your characters be betrayed is having them not seem foolish. The more emotionally complicated the betrayal (rather than a pure machination) the better. Showing the betrayer struggling with what they have done also makes for deeper drama.

48) It's good to show your characters being wrong sometimes, but the reason they are wrong is important. While life is full of factual errors and annoying misunderstandings, a character's mistakes must illuminate their nature. Know their central flaw. Every mistake reflects it.

49) Deeper themes need to be woven into the DNA of character choices and dynamics. If they are only spoken to in dialogue it will often as not get cut for time.

50) Whenever you start discussing plot without discussing character, you know you have lost the thread. The plot is there to illuminate & challenge the characters and compel change. Otherwise it's just "stuff happening."

51) When encountering a seemingly intractable story problem, rather than powering through try taking a break. Take a walk. Do anything other than stare at a screen or a white board. The answer isn't there, it's in your brain and it needs to get jostled around a bit to come out.

52) If spending time to set-up an event is feeling dramatically inert, try jumping right to it and back-filling (explaining after the fact) how the characters got there.

53) Take a final pass at the script and actually sound out the dialogue. Anything you trip over saying the actors are likely to as well, meaning more takes and costing precious time on the day of shooting.

54) If a bad guy has every reason to kill the protagonist and doesn't, the audience needs a reason other than that they can't because it's a TV show. Do they need information? Does the bad guy have a character reason for not doing it? A deeper plan?

55) Interrogation scenes work when both characters are active and trying to learn information. The pain of torture may overtly be what's driving the scene but it's the chess game happening under it that makes things interesting.

56) Common writers room interaction: "[Insert show] did that story. "Not with THESE characters." With 3,000 show on the air, some storylines will inevitably repeat. Finding the angle/execution for how that story is specific to your show is what differentiates it.

57) Don't split your mcguffin/bifurcate your goal. A character can't have two motivations at once. This isn't to say they can't have complexity, or their conscious goal can't change over the course of the story...but we need to know what is driving them at each step.

58) If the story doesn't work, the spectacle doesn't matter.

59) The answer to almost every story question of "But why wouldn't they do [X]" is to just have them do it and show why it doesn't work. The audience is satisfied the most obvious route was tried and the characters seem smarter for overcoming the obstacle.

60) When mixing humor and action, the former shouldn't lower the stakes of the latter. Done well, humor is the result of an unexpected raise in stakes. Think Indy punching a Nazi and the look on his face when it has no effect.

61) Bringing in new characters carries a risk of them feeling like a foreign element (that the audience won't care about). Focusing on how they reflect on the main characters (and themes) will help cement them in the story. Best case, new characters deepen the core characters.

62) Characters rejecting the call to action that the show requires gets old very quickly and generally is settled by the pilot. Audiences don’t love characters that don’t want to be in the show they are watching.

63) Be careful that the potential ramifications of the red herring are not more interesting than the actual story that will unfold.

64) If the room runs out of gas, there's no harm in taking an early lunch.

65) The instinct to take what is expected and twist it is good, but not at the cost of basic narrative laws. "The audience will expect [X] to be the villain, let's make it [Y]." Good. "The audience will expect the hero and villain to fight, let's have them never interact." Bad.

66) If a story requires multiple coincidences there is something wrong with it. Question every assumption, particularly in how the story launches.

67) The difference between intellectual stakes and personal stakes is the difference between Global Warming and a character's room being on fire. The former is dangerous with wide-ranging consequences but not as visceral for driving action as the latter.

68) Know the difference between an escalation of size and of kind. The former (the Hero faces 1 swordsman...then 10!) is not as strong as the latter (the Hero faces 1 swordsman...then, oh no, that's a dragon). An escalation of kind isn't just "more" but conceptually different.

69) The Protagonist being saved by another character at a critical juncture feels earned when previous actions clearly led to the salvation. Their past goodness/love/heroics having changed another character creates satisfying cause-and-effect and makes it part of their journey.

70) When creating a character, think about how they'll function a season down the line. What emotions/dynamics might you want to see? Having a sense of what colors you'll need for painting later means including them in the palette at the start--and will make for a better intro.

71) You only get so many surprises that turn out to be false jeopardy before you break faith with the audience. Think a jump scare in a horror movie that turns out to be a cat. You play that card too often, the audience pulls away.

72) When introducing a new character, give them more than one episode in a row to cement them with the audience. You don't want the audience reaction on their exciting return to be "Who is that?"