The Green Mile

Being that I haven’t written a story like this, but I did apparently outline one for far in the future, I’m going to do the best I can.  These are all opinions as usual.  It’s also why I try to be as general as possible.

1. If you’re writing a story that takes place in the real world then it helps to do some research on actual prisons.  Not only how they are set up, but the cultures that emerge within them.  How do prison hierarchies work?  What about the guards?  Were cigarettes really used as currency and are they still?  So many questions that you can ask yourself and find answers to for some authenticity.
2. Another piece of research can be finding interviews or anything written by those who have spent time in prison.  Find a variety, including those who are in for life, to get several ideas on the mentalities of inmates.  You can’t have them all acting, thinking, and feeling the same thing.  Best way to figure out the variations is to find the sources, which can even include conducting an interview yourself.
3. Guess we’re going for a third research tip, which would be to look into prisons in the past.  This really helps fantasy and historical authors who are probably not working with modern facilities.  So, looking into medieval dungeons can help.  Not to mention finding out how often torture was actually used outside of prisoners of war.  I notice that some authors will always include a torturer even if it’s not necessary.
4. Inmate protagonists need to have some level of relatability and positive traits to be fully effective.  This means, you need to be careful about why they are in prison.  A thief can be easier to get readers to support more than a murderer while a child rapist shouldn’t be ANYWHERE near the protagonist side of a story.  All of this requires thinking a little about what the point of the story is.  Survival, redemption, and escape may best be done by those of non-violent crimes while a violent offender might only work for a story about accepting responsibility.
5. The prison guards don’t always have to be corrupt.  In a story where they’re the antagonists, you don’t have to make them evil.  A criminal protagonist would see them as adversaries, but they can still be good people.  It might make it easier to get readers behind your ‘hero’ if all of the guards are corrupt or assholes, but that could be seen as unrealistic.  Having the guards do their jobs, which runs counter to the desire of the inmate, can be just as effective.
6. One thing I feel about prison is that you need to hold onto hope in order to make it through the experience.  Even if you’re there for life, you need to hope for something or you’ll just waste away.  It could be freedom, peace in prison, or anything that allows for the protagonist to continue moving forward.  This sense of hope will also appeal to readers.  We all require some level of hope to move on whether we realize it or not.
7. Rape doesn’t always have to happen in a prison story.  Whether it be the evilest of inmates or a degenerate prison guard, you don’t have to put this into the story.  I’m not saying this to discount the reality where it happens.  I couldn’t get exact numbers since the sites I went to noted there is major underreporting, which I’m realizing is a common problem with all forms of rape.  My point here is that throwing it in because you think it belongs there isn’t good enough.  This becomes a major plot point and needs to be handled as such.  You can’t just move on from it.