Emulate the Style

Author Emulation

Identification of Author’s Styles

Stephen King is well known for his detailed development of setting in his novels. He gives them their own personalities and treats them like a separate character. He builds the settings  in thorough detail to build suspense and create fear. For example, King creates an isolated farmhouse miles away from town in the middle of a snowstorm in order to create feelings of isolation and total dependency with no way out in the novel Misery.  

He also often uses a nonlinear format for storytelling. He intertwines the past and present in order to create parallel moments within the story. In Misery, dialogue switches in the middle of a sentence from Annie when she first found Paul and looked like his savior, and Annie later being seen as a unhinged captor.  Similarly, in The Green Mile, King doesn’t strictly tell the story in chronological order. He starts with the present time, then incorporates memories from Paul’s, the main character” memories from working on Death Row. This strategy allows the story to explore themes such as guilt and justice. By moving between the past and present, he shows not just what is happening, but how the events that once occurred continuously affect the characters long after they were over. 

King uses a distinct tone in his novels to make his stories believable. In The Green Mile, Paul’s story is told in a confessional way rather than a performative recount of events. His language is straightforward, but it is also reflective, making the story feel real and familiar. 

Emulation of Author’s Styles

The first time I noticed the lights flicker in room 214, I told myself it was just been the wiring. 

That’s what you do in places like Briarcliff Mental Institute. You make excuses for things that don’t sit right. Old buildings creek, pipes groan, and sometimes the lights hum like they’ve got something to say. I’d been working the night shift for three years, long enough to know ever shadow in the halls, long enough to stop asking questions that had answers you don’t want to know. 

Still, room 214 was different. 

Mr. Sanders has moved in during the winter. Quiet man. Didn’t get many visitors, didn’t talk much, but he watched. Always watching. Not in a rude way, but as if he was looking at something I couldn’t see. The first night I checked on him, he smiled at me like we had a secret. I remember that day often. Funny what sticks with you after so long. 

“Long night ahead,” he said. 

I laughed it off. “Aren't they all?”

He didn’t laugh back. Just kept smiling, like he knew something was about to happen. 

A week later, the lights started to flicker. 

At first it was kind of subtle. A blink here, a stutter there. The king of thing you’d miss if you weren’t already tired. But it’d always happen when I passed 214. Never anywhere else. I told maintenance, and they sent a guy who looked as interested as a college student during a group discussion. He checked the panel, and said everything looked fine. 

“Old building,” he told me. “You get used to it”

But I never got used to room 214. 

One night, maybe around 2:00 in the morning, I heard the call light go off. Not the ring from the nurses station, but the one inside the room itself. I remember thinking that was odd because Mr. Sanders hadn’t used his call light since he’d arrived. I went down the hall, and sure enough, the lights started flickering before I even reached the door. 

I knocked. No answer. 

Once I decided to finally open the door, the room was dark except for the hallway light bleeding in behind me. Mr. Sanders was sitting up in bed, eyes wide open, looking straight at the corner of the ceiling. 

“Everything okay? I asked. 

He didn’t look at me. Didn't even blink. 

“The lights bothering you?” I tried again. That's when he finally spoke. 

“Not the lights,” he whispered. “It’s what comes when they go out.”

Explanation of Emulation

The piece begins with first person point of view, mirroring Stephen King’s use of a personal speaker, where the voice feels conversational and reflective. This builds trust with the reader while adding emotional weight. The language used is simple and natural, making it easily comprehensible and believable. Next, the setting is described as seemingly normal, but with its own quirks and eerie feelings. Lastly, piece contains foreshadowing to an event through dialogue. The patient’s simple lines hint at what’s to come without fully explaining the ending. They seem just strange and out of place at the beginning, but then become more meaningful later.