I'm trying to think of more things my character can do to pass the time in a small cell. I have counting bricks and things like that, exercise, reciting lyrics to songs. I'm not sure why I'm drawing such a blank. Maybe it's because it's been years since the last time I was stuck with nothing but my own thoughts for hours on end. Like most of us these days, I have a device to keep me occupied at all times.
Maybe he makes up stories. Has no way to write them, but finds that inventing them is great fun and endlessly entertaining.
I’m tasked up presently writing a character whose present is too tough to exist in and future is equally grim. He’s sensorially deprived and so to stave auditory/visual hallucinations he dwells in all he has—his memories. Takes stock, assesses and sorts them (for he has the time) chronologically. < My research tells me this is a thing. Also, more broadly but again having the time, the mentally confined journal their incarceration/write stories/letters to loved ones/plan their future. Meditation too.
I do have some of that too. In fact, she spends a good part of the first couple of days plotting a violent escape from the man who's holding her prisoner.
I wrote a short story where a piece of small toilet mold eventually grows so large that it becomes sentient and it has a long dialogue with the MC about the tragedy of life and death. Maybe do something like that where she hallucinates a companion.
Solitary confinement is demonstrably extremely unhealthy, so whatever it is, it probably won't be good. "Psychological effects can include anxiety, depression, anger, cognitive disturbances, perceptual distortions, obsessive thoughts, paranoia, and psychosis." "inmates ever assigned to solitary confinement were 3.2 times as likely to commit an act of self-harm per 1000 days at some time during their incarceration as those never assigned to solitary" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solitary_confinement#Psychiatric Something to keep in mind.
Excessively biting nails, plucking out hair (might be eyebrows or whatever body hair), peeling off the skin of your dried up lips, scratching, looking for whatever pimple or scab to completely destroy.
Make shopping lists. I'm so excited to go grocery shopping every second friday, making the list is half the fun in my life. So now I make all kinds of shopping lists. If i were to go shopping in (close eyes and poke at Google Earth on the screen) Marrakesh, what-all would I be looking for? If I were going to a farmer's market in Cuba? How about the Smithsonian? Anyway, i have to go to bed now: shopping starts at 7am for seniors.
I ran through mental lists. US presidents, superbowl winners, roman emperors, track lists for old metallica albums, lineups for Red Sox championship teams, moons of the solar system, Stephen King books... shit, I can lose days going through those
Pace the cell, while in mind walking a well-remembered path. Has the double benefit of staying fit (best if the route is several kilometres long) and exercising memory.
I remember reading about a POW who spent several years in solitary confinement and kept himself sane by planning an entire hotel complex. Once he'd exhaustively planned the architecture he went on to do the decor in the rooms, the bedlinen etc. By the time he was released, he was busy working on a design for the napkins and mats in the bar. I get the feeling this would be my approach, remembering the months I put into planning my kindergarden years ago....
And to think, we have pencils and paper! Well, the old ones do. The young have to do everything with their finger on a tiny screen. Can't imagine designing hotel flatware that way... ... but at least they don't have to keep jumping up and going around to the other side of the table for every move when playing chess against themselves - just flip the screen.
Did you ever see the movie "Murder in the First" with Kevin Bacon and Christian Slater? I hope I have the right actors. Anyways, Kevin's character is in solitary confinement and Christian's character is trying to get him released. Kevin's character replayed old baseball games in his head and probably constructed new games in his head as well. Scott
My bad, it's 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon. It's a thing, apparently everybody can trace a connection directly to him through no more than six steps.
I'd suggest taking a look at Papillon by Henri Chariere .. he did two long spells of solitary in the guyana penal colonies (i'm aware there is some contreversy about whether chariere really was papillon or whether the book is an amalgam of different prisoner experiences, but regardless its a good source for this)
and day dreaming ... in his five year solitary especially he seeks to exhaust himself so that he can live within his imagination going back to the Indian community he live with on his first break for example. In Boldness be my Friend by Richard Pape, when hes put in solitary by the nazi's pape is allowed a bible which he reads cover to cover despite being an aetheist... the prisoners also communicate by tossing notes and cigarettes to each other through the barred doors (something that wasnt possible for papillon due to higher levels of surveilance... although he passed notes out to outside via a sweeper until the man was caught)
Kinda personal and maybe a bit TMI. Before I joined the forum, my mind went to the darkest places it could find due to my depression and being so isolated and alone after I left my ex-wife. I likened it to be stuck in a pitch black forest with nothing but a a lamp and a limited number of matches to keep wandering through the endless darkness. Solitary confinement of any sort does have negative effects on the mind the longer one is stuck in it with no way to interact with anyone around them. The mind goes to some really dark places when there is no one around.
