What We Can Learn From Orange Is The New Black

I admit it, I've been a fan of 'Orange Is The New Black' since ten minutes into the first episode. So now that we're into season three, I'm consuming new episodes as fast as life (and kids) will allow me. Last night I watched three episodes back-to-back. When I finally went to bed, all the story lines kept playing over and over, and just before 2:30 am, my writers-brain realized that the show had done something every good novelist needs to constantly be aware of.

Conflict.
There's always conflict between prisoners on the show, and sometimes those in charge, but last night's 3 episodes had conflict in spades!

I read a series review yesterday that talked about this season being sadder. Well, I can see that, but the conflict is more developed as well. Inter-personal conflict, a big thing hanging over the prison (no spoilers), woman vs nature (bed bugs!), prisoner vs prisoner, and even prisoner vs their past.

'Orange Is The New Black' is about far more than one woman trying to make her way through her sentence. There's a lot writers can learn from the show. Multi-layered characters, how humans can adapt to our environment, how people relate to one another when they have no choice, how our past can shape who we become, conflict, setting, and the list goes on.

'Survivor' won't teach you anything but 'Orange Is The New Black' will.

Setting, As Important As Characters?

Once again, I'm going to draw on one of my favourite blogs for inspiration, but with my own twist.

Writers need to constantly be concerned with characters. How they come across, their quirks, their habits, their history and so on. Sometimes a well-written character  can carry a stumbling plot. We readers can spot a flimsy characters three chapters off, can't we?
But how many of us, readers and writers alike, have considered the setting as a character unto itself?

I hadn't even considered it until I read the latest blog post over at Women and Words, in which R.G Emanuelle discusses The Soul of A Character

It got me thinking about the setting of the pieces I've written, and the settings of my favourite novels and short stories. I love reading about places I know, but it's getting harder to find fiction set in Ontario, let alone set in Canada in general. Before I get too lost in wondering why that is, let me take this one step further.

I think readers enjoy reading about places they know because these places are familiar, they already have a presence and a reality in the reader's mind. I've only stumbled across a few pieces set in Northern Ontario, but the few I have, set the tone perfectly. In particular, Crow Lake

The setting was bleak, sparse, full of memory but promise as well.

The setting worked for this novel because the overall theme of the book was memory, tragedy and struggle. The setting became, really, the only logical backdrop for this story. It just made sense to me, as both a reader and a writer.
As a reader, the book never left me, and I read it back in 2011. As a writer, it never left me because of that setting, because it was set in a familiar part of my home province and because the story was that good that I've been haunted by it ever since.

So as a writer, I am conscious of how to make a setting so vivid that it becomes nearly a character itself. As a reader, I want a backdrop that will be both real and yet not take away from the story.
It's a fine dance, and when done well can leave a lasting impact.

What settings in novels or short fiction has left an impact on you?