How do you write a story about a team?

There are many possibilities of teams, in terms of number and group dynamics. You might want to look at TV Tropes: Power Trio, Four-Man Band and Five-Man Band for some fairly standard builds. Note, however, that the structures presented are sort of averages that the examples more or less fit - they are NOT baking recipes that you should follow to the letter.

The short answer is this: in terms of group dynamics, each team member has to bring something to the team. Each member has to have their place. Take one out, and the team is lacking, not in "ability to complete the mission" (though that is a likely side-effect), but in ability to have certain thoughts and certain emotions, take certain actions.
It is useful to have contrasting, complementary traits on the team. Presented opposite each other, each gains lustre, the team gains the ability to use either when the situation calls for it, and you've added tension to the group dynamics, making things more interesting.

The larger your team, the harder it is to give each team member their unique and necessary place. Look, for example at The Hobbit: de-facto, it functions as a three-person team: there's Thorin - the leader, there's Bilbo, and there's "the other dwarves".
It is, however, possible to have sub-groups within your team. For example, in the Lord of the Rings, the four hobbits, collectively, are the member of the Fellowship who's to be protected, shown and explained things, and who always lands in trouble. At the same time, they have their own internal group dynamic, with Frodo as the leader, Pippin as the comic relief etc. Note that Pippin can only outgrow his role as Butt-Monkey once he is separated from the group.
Which is to say, there isn't a hard limit on how many team members you can have, but the more you have, the harder it becomes to write the team.

While in its interactions with the "outside", the team is a unified unit (to a certain extent), so you're basically writing the team as a complex character of sorts, dealing with a challenge, an important part of your story would be the interactions between team members. Those could almost be a ritual, reinforcing each member's place in the team; think of Spock and McCoy bouncing quips, reinforcing each other's position as "brains" and "heart" respectively. Those interactions, sometimes adding challenges to those presented by the "outside", but ultimately indispensable for solving the story's main Problem, make the story fun to read. In a way, they're the reason to write a team in the first place. It's the team that lets each character shine.

posted over 6 years ago

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Galastel‭

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