Thread: Writers go to jail...sort of

Cells for Writers · Writers Victoria

Writers Victoria is proud to announce the opening of two new writing spaces right in the centre of Melbourne’s CBD. Each studio is a converted double cell on the top floor of the historic Old Melbourne Gaol at the top end of Russell Street. As with the Glenfern Writers’ Studios, this is a wonderful opportunity to provide writers with the invaluable resource of a secluded, dedicated and private space in which to write.

We’re looking forward to handing down sentences to our most exciting emerging writers – and hoping to get many great sentences in return! The cells will certainly focus the mind and will particularly suit writers working on crime or historical fiction. However, for any writer who has a pressing need to avoid distractions, the cells provide perfect minimalist seclusion. – Roderick Poole, Writers Victoria Director.

I don't know about you, but I think this is a cool idea. If I didn't have a job, or had some annual leave handy, I'd sign up. How would you like to be locked up for a month with nothing to do but write?

I think it is a great idea for anyone with little or no imagination; as for writers, with their imaginations I could see a month in a prison cell driving, all but the brave of, them over the edge.

I would hate it. Such an endeavor is at best, ancillary, and at worst, pointless. It is important to realize that one of the best tools in the writer's arsenal is the stimulation they recieve from observing society and other human interaction. Isolation is a romantic notion, but not likely to produce any great art.

I would worry about marauding gangs of writers who'd go from cell to cell stealing laptops and shaking down hapless scribes.

Isolation might be something to consider for revisions on a deadline, but if it's prison food and stainless steel toilets, I might consider a hotel.

I like the idea, but I'm not sure if I would be able to do that without going stir-crazy.

I would go nuts -_- They'd have to "upgrade" me to a padded cell.

Originally Posted by Walter F.

I like the idea, but I'm not sure if I would be able to do that without going stir-crazy.

if you actually read the link...it's a "daytime" cell. the whole thing is a promotional scam. you can leave whenever you want, and you
HAVE to leave at a certain time, even if you're on a roll. realy? i think i would do well if committed to a 30 day "incarceration" with no way
out...i mean...as long as they sold cheap chianti on the commissary. i could probably get 10 times more done than i do now, as far as writing.
but this is just a promotional gig.

I've lived in worse. Some jails sells are like hotels. Some of the prisoners liver better than people on the outside. Count me in.

Originally Posted by MaggieMoo

I've lived in worse. Some jails sells are like hotels. Some of the prisoners liver better than people on the outside. Count me in.

That's a sad state of affairs don't you think?

Certainly is dear. But it's true. Some people I know keep re-offended, so they can go back to jail, they have nothing else on the outside. Nobody cares for them and they get fed, with a roof over their head. To them it's home.

Which means pedophiles, rapists, and mass murders are doing petter than a lot of the population. That makes me extraordinarily angry.

You and me both!

Few go to these anecdotal 'country club' minimum security prisons to which you refer. The rapists and murderers are in maximum security state or federal penitentiaries which are not nice places. There are gangs there and they will kill you if you don't fall in line with one of them. I have interviewed several ex-cons and guards for research; you don't want to be there, believe me.

Am aware of the harder jails and cirms. Thanks laughingJim.