using the word "suddenly"

SleepyDormouse said:
Not quite sure how I've earned the thanks, but your welcome! :)
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You started this thread. If you hadn't, I'd still have a PoV error in the fourth scene of my WiP1.

I must have reread this scene over a hundred times -- and rewritten it quite a few times -- yet I've never noticed the error before.
 
Ha, I was thinking I don't use it that much, and then I open WIP and the first sentence that jumps out is:

"Suddenly nauseated by the grease, she put down her plate." :whistle:

Edit: Just had a look through, and I use it quite a lot but it tends to be for small things/actions, like "he looked suddenly tired" or "Suddenly he guessed what she was going to say".
 
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It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly something happened. Dirks sullen face pressed against the murky glass. "Dammit. Why can't they at least wait till the storm blows over."
 
It's funny, I can't recall ever using suddenly so I checked a 5000 word short story....no results. Maybe it is more of a present tense kind of word? Which I never write
 
It does seem like one of those words you wouldn't want...kind of like 'just then a monster appeared, making sailboat shadow puppets on the greasy wall'

(actually I might have to use that)
 
Well, obviously, that sentence would require a "suddenly" for alliteration. "Suddenly a monster appeared, making sailboat shadow puppets on the slippery wall."

:rolleyes:
 
Jriff, yes, but you don't NEED to have suddenly there
 
Dormouse, I'd suggest that you just double check to make sure you don't inadvertently use any lines from the Olivia Newton-John and Cliff Richard song. Here's a sample... Suddenly the wheels are in motion... and I, I'm ready to sail any ocean. And that reminds me that Billy Ocean had his own hit with a song titled Suddenly. From looking at youtube to give links, I've found a number of other songs with the same title. Sorry, my intent was not to make you paranoid, just aware.
 
I'm pretty sure the book I read was not present tense and as I recall it was annoying because::
ratsy said:
It's funny, I can't recall ever using suddenly so I checked a 5000 word short story....no results. Maybe it is more of a present tense kind of word? Which I never write
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:: suddenly usually accompanied the occurrence of something fortuitous or inexplicable and there were never any full description or explanations.

Suddenly he had the knife in his hand and had thrust it into his heart [with the precision he'd learned all those years in training to be a shadow fighter.] Oh I almost forgot all the timely discovery of past events.
 
I've been of recent reading some old classics and am appalled at the number of times suddenly crops up. Since I've loved these books for a very long time I'm not sure when I suddenly had an aversion to that word.

This much I can guess at though; it is an ly word and I've been advised to avoid those when possible. Also it seems that suddenly could easily be replaced with -with a suddenness- in a sudden sharp move or some other such combination though it tends to add a few words to get there.

I think though that often it is used to denote that whatever was going on it was a surprise to the subject or the object and appears to almost come out of nowhere.
 
This made me curious and I just scanned a couple of ebooks: Iain Banks in Matter (500 odd pages) has 43 uses of suddenly, Neal Asher in Polity Agent (also 500 odd pages) has 29 uses. Both successful authors so I'd not get too worried. Also in both cases the word is sometimes used before and sometimes after the action.
 
I'm a total bigot when it comes to intensifiers. It was the one thing I came to this site already prejudiced about ;)

As said above, there's usually a better word than the one you're trying to intensify unless it denotes an atypical change in state.

pH
 
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