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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41516
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Probably the reason most of the prison cell sections you read were boring is because there was no conflict. Stories are mostly about Person A wanting to do something, and Person B (or Thing A, or society or the universe) trying to stop them.

Of course in your situation person A wants to escape from the prison cell, but of course they can't and they know they can't, so there is no active conflict because they aren't really pursuing their goal, they're just moaning about it. And they mostly aren't interacting with people, they are only interacting with themselves. Hence it's really difficult to find conflict. But not impossible.

I found this thread because I'm also trying to write a prison cell scene and it wasn't working. The person above who said your guy needs to try different things and fail is probably right.

You said: 'It's important to the character development that he is isolated for an extended period of time, antagonized by others and also made to feel powerless.'

So what is he actively trying to do? And what is stopping him? And how does he change in order to overcome that thing?

He's isolated - so he's probably trying to stop himself from going crazy somehow. You get to decide what is the worst thing that is making him feel crazy, and how he overcomes that. This is the angle I'm going with with (my character was halfway to crazy before she got in the isolated prison cell). This is quite hard, so I don't recommend it much.

He's antagonised by others - hence conflict (presumably with prison guards etc). What is he trying to do and how do they stop him and beat him down? And how does he win through in the end (or make things worse)? This is easier and gives you action as well as conflict.

He's made to feel powerless - why is feeling powerless really bad for your character? What would he do to overcome that feeling? Would he retreat to a tiny corner of his world he can control? Or would he try to outsmart the guards by being a smart alec to get a rise out of them, to keep a feeling of control?

Whatever you do, if he actively tries to do something, something gets in his way, and he changes something in order to achieve his goal (even if that doesn't get him very far, just gets him to another problem), it's going to be better than agonising about his situation scene after scene without doing anything.

Anyway, hope this helps. Back to my character trying to stop herself from going crazy...

Original score: 4