Metacognition: Jane Eyre Writing

My role in the assignment was that of the producer, which required me to have a specific angle in the process that went beyond looking at the ideas of the novel. I had to look for the 'story'. My character was searching for the conflicts, the drama, and the excitement. This sent me in a different direction than my group members, because I had to stay focused not only on abstract ideas, but how they would attract an audience. The producer is searching for subjects that relate to audiences, and that was what shaped my thought process.
This was a really interesting way of looking at a book, because I became the editor of a story that wasn't fully written. I had to pretend to be looking at a plot for a modern adaptation when we had only ideas floating around. I needed to correct and revise to 'make things work'. Searching for a story this way really put me in an interesting position I had never experienced before.
Another thing that shaped my thoughts was the idea that this was going to put a nineteenth-century novel in my generation's words. It required me to think of situations where the feelings Jane experienced would be appropriate in modern times. That prompted me to search for events based on emotions rather than carbon-copy details (I, for one, have never wandered for three days looking for food and work in a foreign village, but I have felt similar feelings of overwhelming anxiety and desperation). I had to feel my way through this generation's lifestyle to relate it back to Jane. I thought this assignment really was an interesting way to look at why classic literature matters and how it relates to us in interesting and unexpected ways.