How many times did my teachers say that group projects were good for us, because we'd need to work in groups as adults? Too many. At least that's how it felt from late elementary school through high school. I was always glad to see those group projects end. As a grown up, things are different, both professionally and in my writing.
It is true that most of my work involves being part of a group assigned to a project, and I like my job. What has changed from my school days? For one thing, most of the groups have a framework to follow. We have specialities -- areas in which we're experts in and typically enjoy doing -- and we have a good idea from the start of how we can contribute. We have a plan, and frequently revisit that plan to adjust as needed.
If those childhood projects had included a mentor who was good at planning and knew what skills and interests each kid brought to the project, I think group projects wouldn't have been as painful.
In my area of specialization, part of my work involves collaborating with a group, and that's usually followed by spending time on my own to make sense of what I've learned. The introvert in me gets to tune out the world while I take the puzzle pieces I've gathered and organize them in a way that makes sense to me and to the rest of the team.
Collaborating with Silbrith on the Caffrey Conversation works much the same way. There's joy in bunnystorming plots, and there's also pleasure in tuning out the world to turn those ideas into stories.
It wasn't until I started writing this post that I realized that much of what we describe in the Caffrey Conversation series are group projects. White Collar, after all, was about a team who investigated white collar crimes. Peter is constantly pulling together a group of people and assigning them a case to investigate. Much of the growth for Neal in our stories is learning to recognize when he needs to act like a team member instead of a lone wolf.
Now that I think about it, a lot of childhood play could be described as group projects. As kids we made up worlds and picked our parts, and in that context working in a group was natural and fun. There's something about my school assignments that turned things inside out, making the group something painful that we wanted to escape. Perhaps it's how artificial it seemed. Even now, when I attend training where the instructor asks us to practice in groups, I cringe. Usually it goes fine, but there's a part of me that worries I'm being dragged back to my old school experiences.
When we exchanged thoughts about this topic, Silbrith made a good point about school bands and orchestras. She didn't participate in those, and wishes she could have. I wonder if I would have liked them, and I think I would have. In a band, everyone has a clearly defined part. There's also a goal I could appreciate -- learning to perform a song. That feels tangible to me, the way a story or a project at work feels.
It's something I want to keep in mind while writing my novel -- Prime Conditions. The main character is in college, and will be gathering a group of allies in a project to stop the bad guys. Along the way, he'll also have school projects. Perhaps one or more of those should be painful -- not just because authors like to torture characters -- but because that's realistic.
My teachers weren't lying. People often do need to work in groups, and while it's less painful now as an adult, it isn't all sunshine and roses, either. There are still certain types of projects I experience where nothing gets done or decided, and I'll roll my eyes the next time the group gathers, because everyone has forgotten what was discussed last time. We'll cover the same ground again and again, and gradually people will stop showing up for working sessions and the project will die.
So my character probably needs to learn both lessons -- that working with a team toward a common goal can change the world, and that a team that isn't committed to their project can flounder and fail.
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