In one of my favorite Peanuts strips, Snoopy is sitting atop his doghouse, typing away at his portable typewriter. We see him type, Suddenly, a shot rang out! One of the other characters (Lucy, I think) reads the sentence and says that a writer must be keenly aware of every word, and wonders aloud if suddenly is the right word in this case. Snoopy tries again, typing, Gradually, a shot rang out!
A quick Google search of that phrase returns 355 hits, so I am not the only one who remembers this strip. It is a reminder that we often use words like suddenly as storytelling devices for dramatic effect, when most of the time they are completely unnecessary. It is true that a gunshot cannot ring out gradually, so suddenly becomes a redundancy. Remember, good writing is clear first and elegant second, and redundancy is seldom elegant. Words like eventually, suddenly, ultimately, and unexpectedly are very often extraneous, depending on the contexts in which we use them. Keep an eye out for them when you proofread your own work, and if your sentences mean exactly the same without the words, cross them out suddenly!
When I was a newspaper editor, I put a copy of this exact cartoon on the wall next to my desk. Let’s face it, Snoopy was one of the great sages of his time.!