using the word "suddenly"

[Dan Jones]

There's no problem with having lots of coulds and shoulds, although one wouldn't want them to be clustered together too much, thereby drawing undue attention to themselves.

Unless you're Brian Potter.

"Couldawouldashoulda."

 

[Dennis E. Taylor]

the word suddenly shouldn't be sprung upon the unaware reader

Especially not suddenly.

 

[tinkerdan]

Especially ones with heart conditions:

the word suddenly shouldn't be sprung upon the unaware reader

The EMT's arrive and the first thing they do is check the page they were on, "Yep, another one."

 

[Tony Iommi]

I don't think you can get away without using the word suddenly but the key here is to not use it all the time I found when I first started I kept writing it but I think it's just a little bit of practice and perseverance I'm rereading it yourself over and over again

 

[Juliana]

I use 'sudden' a lot, too. Although with current wip I think my main repeat is 'sigh'. I was clearing out the excess suddens and sighs yesterday, and boy oh boy did my characters sigh a lot. And I don't even have the excuse of writing romance – there really shouldn't be as much sighing as there is in a middle grade adventure story. (had a good culling, however, so hopefully down to acceptable quantities of sighing)

 

[tinkerdan]

'I have found many sighs myself,' he says with a sigh.

I use 'sudden' a lot, too. Although with current wip I think my main repeat is 'sigh'. I was clearing out the excess suddens and sighs yesterday, and boy oh boy did my characters sigh a lot. And I don't even have the excuse of writing romance – there really shouldn't be as much sighing as there is in a middle grade adventure story. (had a good culling, however, so hopefully down to acceptable quantities of sighing)

::In some cases they were there when I replaced or deleted some excess speech attributes; so I elected to keep them as the alternate attribute.

One thing to remember about culling words:
You can only exfoliate so much, before they lock you up in a rubber room in a straight jacket to protect you from harming yourself.

 

[SilentRoamer]

Suddenly needs to be followed by Seymour and ideally he should be standing beside me.

 

[Juliana]

You can only exfoliate so much, before they lock you up in a rubber room in a straight jacket to protect you from harming yourself

So true!

Suddenly needs to be followed by Seymour and ideally he should be standing beside me.

You haven't been buying any suspect potted plants, have you?

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

Realise is my main problem. All my characters are a little slow on the uptake and they're always 'realising' something, sometimes quite suddenly.

 

[SilentRoamer]

You haven't been buying any suspect potted plants, have you?

Oh most definitely. Although probably suspect for their purposes rather than their place of origin!

 

[SilentRoamer]

Realise is my main problem. All my characters are a little slow on the uptake and they're always 'realising' something, sometimes quite suddenly.

I suddenly realised I use probably a lot. Post above is a perfect example. Maybe I feel the need to preface my statements so they are non declarative. *Shruggs* Probably...

 

[HareBrain]

(had a good culling, however, so hopefully down to acceptable quantities of sighing)

You killed off several characters just because they were sighing too much?

In MG??!

 

[Juliana]

You killed off several characters just because they were sighing too much?

In MG??!

Yes Of course not! I just locked them in the basement put them on the naughty step.

 

[LittleStar]

Suddenly needs to be followed by Seymour and ideally he should be standing beside me.

I genuinly sing this to myself on the way home from work,I think it's a great song (I only know the chorus part though) i work in a garden centre, and I've only just put it together now!

Kinda back on topic, All of my characters enjoy a good ol' shrug, and I can't stop them.

 

[Juliana]

All of my characters enjoy a good ol' shrug, and I can't stop them

All my characters are a little slow on the uptake and they're always 'realising' something

We'll have to get all these characters together. Then they can have fun shrugging and sighing, and realizing suddenly that they're repeating themselves. A lot.

 

[tinkerdan]

"Suddenly I realized I'd shrug a lot lately," he said with a sigh. And somehow he was more upset that he couldn't remember how he realized this. He shrugged and left the story.

 

[yorelm]

"suddenly" removes the suddenness.

 

[JonLaidlow]

It always feels like a first draft kinda word... Don't worry about it at the time, but be ruthless in your editing.

 

[Dennis E. Taylor]

So all "suddenly" comedy aside, how do you handle unexpected events? I.E. "Joe had the cover almost completely unbolted when SUDDENLY it popped off."

 

[LittleStar]

I don't think you need to say anything other than the cover popped off in his hands, something like "Jo hadn't even finished unscrewing the third bolt, when the cover snapped open like a jack-in-the-box."

Just by using a few different words you can eliminate, I think, all 'suddenlys' and maintain the sense or urgency or surprise.